Way of Life: Rare Footage of the Hiroshima Aftermath, 1946

in Film, History, Life, Video - Politics/Society | May 3rd, 2011

The recent 9.0-magnitude Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and subsequent Fukushima nuclear accidents were among the most devastating environmental disasters in recorded history. The immediate consequences are frightening, but their full, long-term impact remains an unsettling mystery.

This, of course, isn’t the first time Japan has faced a nuclear emergency. After the World War II atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the U.S. government recorded the raw aftermath of Hiroshima in candid, grim detail (while Hollywood was busy lampooning America’s nuclear obsession). Filmed in the spring of 1946 by the Department of Defense, Way of Life documents how the people of Hiroshima adapted to life after the atomic bomb. Though the archival footage lacks sound, its imagery — moving, heartbreaking, deeply human — speaks volumes about the delicate duality of despair and resilience.

Maria Popova is the founder and editor in chief of Brain Pickings, a curated inventory of cross-disciplinary interestingness. She writes for Wired UK, The Atlantic and DesignObserver, and spends a great deal of time on Twitter.

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Aftermath of the Tsunami in Japan

in Current Affairs, Video - Politics/Society | March 18th, 2011

It was one week ago that a powerful 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northern Japan. The tsunami that followed, with waves reaching as high as ten meters, swept as far as ten miles inward. In this video shot for The Guardian, we see the haunting devastation in Shintona, a small town in the Miyagi prefecture (one of the areas worst affected by the tsunami). Amidst the wreckage on the streets, it is quite stirring to peer inside some of the washed-out houses, where we observe broken china and damaged photographs, reminding us how life can be so profoundly and personally interrupted by nature’s fury.

The Guardian article accompanying this video can be read here. For more videos and resources related to the earthquake in Japan, including ways you can help, see this post.

Eugene Buchko is a blogger and photographer living in Atlanta, GA. He maintains a photoblog, Erudite Expressions, and writes about what he reads on his reading blog.

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