Saturday, February 21, 2015

Rare Historical Photos

Brotherly love without boundaries. 

Joe O’Donnell, the man who took this photo at Nagasaki, was sent by the U.S. military to document the damage inflicted on the Japanese homeland caused by air raids of fire bombs and atomic bombs.

Over the next seven months starting September 1945, he traveled across Western Japan chronicling the devastation, revealing the plight of the bomb victims including the dead, the wounded, the homeless and orphaned. Images of the human suffering was etched both on his negatives and his heart.

In the photo, the boy stands erect, having done his duty by bringing his dead brother to a cremation ground. Standing at attention was an obvious military influence. Looking at the boy who carries his younger sibling on his back, keeps a stiff upper lip, tries so hard to be brave is heart-breaking. He has epitomized the spirit of a defeated nation.

Sometimes later Joe O’Donnell spoke to a Japanese interviewer about this picture:

“I saw a boy about ten years old walking by. He was carrying a baby on his back. In those days in Japan, we often saw children playing with their little brothers or sisters on their backs, but this boy was clearly different. I could see that he had come to this place for a serious reason. He was wearing no shoes. His face was hard. The little head was tipped back as if the baby were fast asleep. The boy stood there for five or ten minutes.”

“The men in white masks walked over to him and quietly began to take off the rope that was holding the baby. That is when I saw that the baby was already dead. The men held the body by the hands and feet and placed it on the fire. The boy stood there straight without moving, watching the flames. He was biting his lower lip so hard that it shone with blood. The flame burned low like the sun going down. The boy turned around and walked silently away.”

10 comments:

  1. Other commenters have said better than I could... That children should never have to experience the horror's of of war, that they should just get to be kids, and do the things that kids do.

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  2. Given the longevity of the Japanese people, there's a good chance that 10 Y/O boy is
    still alive. It would be interesting to interview him now. CH

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    Replies
    1. Hadn't thought of that and that would be interesting.

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  3. This was genocide. There was no excuse as Japan had already surrendered.
    The US gov scum did it because they just wanted to. Prior to dropping the two
    nuclear bombs on Japan, the scum dropped one in New Mexico.

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    1. There was no excuse as Japan had already surrendered.

      I'm confused: What did the US do after the surrender that was genocide?

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    2. Dropped the two nuclear bombs. Even Einstein stated this was purely
      political. Mass genocide.
      http://www.fogonazos.es/2007/02/hiroshima-pictures-they-didnt-want-us_05.html

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    3. Thanks, but Japan did not surrender until after the second bomb.

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  4. Seeing this young fellow standing upright with strength and determination, I can
    see how Japan was an imposing force for such a tiny country. Good find.

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    Replies
    1. It would be wonderful, as a commenter mentioned, if he was still alive and could be interviewed.

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