TOMATSU, Shomei; Ken DOMON. Hiroshima-Nagasaki Document 1961. [Tokyo:] The Japan Council Against Atomic & Hydrogen Bombs. 1961.
Front and back boards illustrated with concentric circles and title lettering in grey to spine, black and white photographic endpapers; unpaginated; housed in original purple cardboard slipcase; and staple bound scientific report with wrapper pasted at spine containing illustrated diagrams and photographs; pp. 54; accompanied by informational prospectus; slight markings to book spine with mildly bumped bottom edge; cardboard slipcase with damage to corners and wear to extremities as well as markings to rear board; book and additional materials very good.
First edition.
The first (and only) edition of a document published by the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen bombs, this rare anti-nuclear publication operates as both an artistic and scientific report, examining the aftermath of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States in 1945. Particularly scarce in this condition, it includes contributions by artists including Ken Domon and Shomei Tomatsu, two of the most influential post-war photographers in Japan.
The document comes in the form of two volumes: a photographic depiction of the effects of radiation; and a scientific report “Hiroshima-Nagasaki Document 1961”, featuring scholarly articles and diagrams on Atomic Hazards with segments on “The Life and Feeling of Atom Bomb Sufferers” and “Catastrophe to be expected from Thermo-Nuclear Warfare”.
Also included is a paper brochure in Japanese which further elaborates on the effects of the bombings, ending: “Thus, as we conclude this record, we would like to convey a realization: for the victims, the dropping of the atomic bomb is not a thing of the past occurring in 1945, but its reality lives on within them even today”.
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