Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs

Posted by Miss Cellania in Pictures, Weapons & War on November 12, 2008 at 10:20 am



In 2000, Don Levy found a suitcase full of photographs ready to be picked up by the garbage service in Watertown, Massachusetts. The photographs show Hiroshima in the period shortly after the US dropped the atomic bomb on the city in 1945. A few years later, with the help of writer Adam Levy (no relation), he tracked down the former owner of the house where the suitcase was found. Mark Levitt had inadvertently discarded the pictures when he sold the house. But he had more! He had gotten them from Harlan Miller in 1972, who received them from a family clearing out junk. Miller still had the wooden crate the photographs came in, with the name Lt. Robert L. Corsbie. Records reveal Corsbie was a member of the Physical Damage Division, a group sent to Hiroshima in the fall of 1945 to examine and record the damage caused by the atomic bomb. The pictures were purchased by International Center of Photography in 2006. You can see some of them with the story at Design Observer. Link -Thanks, stefan wahrlich!


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16 comments to "Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs"

  1. silentwatcher24
    November 12th, 2008 at 10:38 am

    Those are amazing. It's so hard to think what that much have been like, for that to be your life...

  2. stormie24
    November 12th, 2008 at 10:51 am

    wow. I think the most disturbing is the picture of the jacket hung over the chair. There are so many sad stories from Hiroshima. I guess 'paradise comes at a cost' is somewhat true.

  3. Rocky Rook
    November 12th, 2008 at 11:02 am

    I've seen the 'footprints' type of picture before. That blows my mind ... a blast so powerful it leaves shadows.

  4. Geekazoid
    November 12th, 2008 at 11:08 am

    Haunting pictures. Very thought provoking and sad (not judging anything about the war or hiroshima in general, just thought I'd point that out before the pro war rah rah crowd gets riled up over this as per usual).

  5. Scooter
    November 12th, 2008 at 11:31 am

    it would be interesting to see the whole series.
    interesting as in saddening as to the effect of the bomb, and a warning to anyone who thinks they are the answer to anything.

  6. boliyou
    November 12th, 2008 at 11:31 am

    Thanks for passing these along. They're haunting, and frightening. A real testament to the destruction in Hiroshima.

  7. red
    November 12th, 2008 at 12:09 pm

    holy crap, did you see the box it was in? How could anyone accidentally throw out a box like that. That thing alone is worth good scratch on EBAY.

  8. red
    November 12th, 2008 at 12:09 pm

    Oh wow, I just re-read what I said. I'm like a kid - who cares about the photos, check out the box, mom!

  9. Miss Cellania
    November 12th, 2008 at 12:15 pm

    The crate wasn't thrown out. It was given to Miller, who still has it.

  10. Vagabond
    November 12th, 2008 at 11:41 pm

    Those bastards deserved every bit of it and more!
    They butchered innocent millions upon millions of innocent people all over Asia. They committed atrocities you could not even dream possible. Japanese soldiers disemboweled pregnant Chinese women and made the women watch while the soldiers used the wriggling fetuses for bayonet practice. They dragged Women out of their homes, raped them in front of their families and their townsfolk and then shipped them off and used them as "comfort women for Japanese soldiers. They buried thousands of civilians ALIVE in mass graves. The Rape of Nanking was an inhuman contest between two Japanese officers to see who could kill more Chinese.
    To this day, Japanese refuse to formally apologize or make restitution for all their atrocities. In fact, there are Japanese schoolbooks that deny their atrocities ever occurred. So DO NOT feel sorry for Hiroshima or Nagasaki. The bombs saved countless American soldiers' lives and countless Asian lives.

  11. AO
    November 13th, 2008 at 12:06 am

    We have to stop Iran and North Korea from developing their own atomic combs! Those things are devastating.

  12. mountain
    November 13th, 2008 at 12:15 am

    While I disagree that Hiroshima or Nagasaki "deserved" it, I do think it's true that many more lives would have been lost, on both sides, if the US had opted for a land invasion instead of the Atom bomb.

  13. noahstrickland
    November 13th, 2008 at 9:18 am

    Got to kind of agree with Vagabond. the Japanese had little if no respect for the chinese, they refered to them as "garlic eaters" and looked upon them with contempt. all though we will never know if there was another way to end the fighting, i for one am glad it happened then so that it will never have to happen again......hopefully.

  14. Tiny Dancer
    November 15th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    Wonderful and sobering link, thank you. Might want to edit the text a tad, though. I shouldn't have been laughing, but I couldn't help it: "... examine and record the damage caused by the atomic comb". Just picturing that massive comb kickin' ass made me giggle.

  15. Miss Cellania
    November 15th, 2008 at 1:09 pm

    Aiiee! I never saw that. Thanks, Tiny Dancer. I'll fix it.

  16. anonymous commenter
    November 15th, 2008 at 9:39 pm

    Whoever butchers civilians, if their flag is red and white or red and white a blue, is a monster. If I wasn't an atheist I would hope everyone responsible would burn in a special corner of hell.


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