I Killed the King With My Lies

..July 2010.. ..Nagasaki..

Mr. Takahara Itaru is a Nagasaki Hibakusha. He survived the fire bombing of Tokyo on March 10th, 1945. He returned home to Nagasaki and witnessed the atomic bomb being dropped on August 9th, 1945.

Takahara-san is a very well know photojournalist in Japan. During the years after the atomic bomb, he documented what was lost in the city. He just published a book Nagasaki Urakami Cathedral, 1945-1958: An Atomic Bomb Relic Lost. His photos document the remains of the Urakami Cathedral after the atomic bomb destroyed the largest church in East Asia.

His photos span the 13 years after the atomic bomb, showing how the Christians continued to worship and tried to maintain some of the damaged relics. The closing photos show members of the parish clearing away the strong stoic remains of the heavily destroyed cathedral. To make way for the new cathedral.

I was very lucky to photograph Takahara-san at my exhibition in the Nagasaki Peace Museum.

Portrait of Takahara Itaru from paul saviano on Vimeo.

Tags: From Above, Hibakusha, Nagasaki, Nagasaki Peace Museum, Takahara Itaru, Urakami Cathedral

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 at 1:43 am and is filed under From Above, Hibakusha, Nagasaki. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.