Capturing Hiroshima: Australian Artists and the Response to the Atomic Bombing
During the allied occupation of Japan (1945-1952), a large Australian military contingent was headquartered in Kure, the city to next-door to Hiroshima, and some 3000-4000 Australian service people were sent into Hiroshima early in 1946 to help clear the destruction. Because of this exposure to the aftermath of the atomic bombing, a surprisingly vivid record of the effects of that first use of atomic weaponry exists today in Australia in soldiers’ diaries, photographs and art works. In this presentation I shall explore Australian encounters with the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima through four individual stories: the first three are the stories of Australian artists who painted the landscapes of destruction left by the bomb, while the fourth concerns an objet trouvé brought back from the city by a soldier who served there. The experiences and visions of Hiroshima that I shall discuss are diverse, reflecting the varied ways in which different individuals responded to the horrors with which they were confronted, but together, they give insights the profound challenges of responding – artistically, psychologically and emotionally – to the realities of atomic warfare.
Reischauer Institute Japan Forum Lecture Series
