Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Pictures
Yoshiro Fukui (1912－1974) experienced the atomic bomb attack by the US air force on Hiroshima in August 1945.
At the time he was in an army barrack which collapsed under a huge blast of the nuclear bomb, though he was rescued from debris. One hour after the big blast, that was around 9 a.m., Fukui decided to depict the scene of bombed streets of Hiroshima City just with sheets of paper and pencils.
This picture was titled "No Title." There portrayed was an urban district of Hiroshima City burning with black smokes in addition to some people lying on the ground. Anyway it is the picture depicted in Hiroshima the soonest after blasting of the atomic bomb.
He also drew another picture at night of the day. Fukui met a girls' high school student who was sitting on the ground facing flames of a burning town. There was nobody else in the corner of the City; it was like some queer scene of a movie. Fukui shouted at the girl, "Run, run away!" But she continued sitting there facing flames caused by the atomic bomb dropped in the morning.
"No Title," the focus on a girls' high school student facing flames all alone.
On the other hand, a very successful painter of Japan did not depict Hiroshima for 33 years after he experienced the atomic bomb attack. Ikuo Hirayama (1930-2009) was conscripted at the time in an arms factory in Hiroshima. In a lumber yard of the factory he was exposed to the blast of the atomic bomb.
But after the war, for many years he did not pick up Hiroshima as a theme of his art. Nonetheless, when he visited Hiroshima on August 6 (the day when Hiroshima was attacked in 1945) in 1978, he decided to directly depict Hiroshima but not for keeping memory of atrocity of the war but for expressing rebirth and progress of Hiroshima.
"Picture of Hiroshima Living and Changing" by Ikuo Hirayama, 1978 (The God of Fire or Acala was painted in the upper left space.)
Some artists who did not directly experience the Hiroshima atomic-bomb attack in person also painted the tragedy of Hiroshima.
Japanese painter Masao Tsuruoka (1907-1979) presented his image of Hiroshima in 1953 as below.
"Vaporization of Human Beings" by Masao Tsuruoka, 1953
Tsuruoka was enlisted during WWII. But soldier Tsuruoka got seriously ill in the Chinese front to be sent back to Japan. He could barely escape the death. Though he could survive the war, most of his picture works were lost due to the Great Tokyo Air Raids by the US Air Force in 1945.
Kikuji Yamashita (1919-1986) also experienced WWII as a soldier. After the war he joined the Japanese Communist Party. He left pictures today regraded as witness pictures of the Japanese history after WWII. The following picture is thought to demonstrate the Japanese society after the Hiroshima attack and the defeat of the Empire of Japan.
"O-TO O-Tem" by Kikuji Yamashita, 1951
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) of Spain also painted some pictures in response to the coming of the Atomic Era or the nuclear age.
Finally you can refer to Hiroshima atomic bomb pictures painted by ordinary Hiroshima citizens who survived the first nuclear bomb attack in the human history in the following sites:
http://a-bombdb.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/pdbj/search_rule.do?class_name=pict
http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/virtual/VirtualMuseum_j/visit/art/art00.html
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