(Total of 37: 11 negatives and 26 prints)
Satsuo Nakata, a journalist in the editorial department at the Osaka bureau of the Domei News Agency, took photos of Hiroshima during the period August 10-11, and Takashi Saeki, a photographer in the photo department of the same Domei News Agency Osaka bureau, took photos of the city between August 9 and 17. In total, 36 of their documentary photos remain. One of the photos of the city burned to the ground with nothing but a chimney remaining (TSAEKI0010) was taken by Mr. Saeki and published on August 19 in 28 newspapers, including the Yomiuri Hochi, as well as both the Tokyo and Osaka head office editions of the Asahi Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun.The photo is considered to have been the first to convey nationwide in Japan the horrific consequences of the atomic bombing. One photo taken by Mr. Nakata that captured an incinerated truck (SNAKATA0009) was published in 18 newspapers, including the August 20 issue of the Yomiuri Hochi. In early September, a photo showing a destroyed church (TSAEKI0006) and others were also published in newspapers in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Eleven negatives of the photos are currently kept at Kyodo News, the successor to the Domei News Agency, and the other materials are archived in the form of prints, photocopied film, and digital images. After the war, U.S. survey teams ordered the company to turn over the materials. Among the materials returned from the U.S. in 1973, prints confirmed to have been taken by Mr. Nakata and Mr. Saeki are now archived at the Hiroshima University Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine.
Hiroshima, Nagasaki: The Apocalyptic Moments of the A-bombed Cities
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