top of page
Rainey Knudson

23. Shōmei Tōmatsu, Beer Bottle After the Atomic Bomb Explosion

Shomei Tomatsu, Beer Bottle After the Atomic Bomb Explosion, from the series 11:02–Nagasaki, 1961. Gelatin silver print, approx. 18 × 15.5 inches.

This shocking image is not, in fact, an animal's carcass strung up in a slaughterhouse, but a common beer bottle, deformed beyond recognition by the atomic blast in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Shōmei Tōmatsu was 15 when we dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan, but it wasn’t until the 1960s, when he was sent by the Japanese government to document Nagasaki, that he understood the horror, especially of the hibakusha, the scarred survivors of the bomb. This image—bloodless yet appalling—implicitly asks: what madness makes us herd towards catastrophe, only to learn once again that nothing is inevitable?



 

To receive a weekly summary of the MFAH 100 series rather than a daily email, please subscribe on my Substack blog The Impatient Reader.

Comments


Sign up to receive a notification when a new Impatient Reader is published.

Thanks for subscribing!

IR post subscribe form
bottom of page