..January 2019.. ..Tokyo..
I received the sad news that Michiko Kiyooka passed away sometime during 2018. Mrs. Kiyooka was a Tokyo fire bombing survivor that I photographed in 2008. Her portrait and testimony is one of the first to be featured in the From Above project.
She was 21 years old when Tokyo was firebombed on March 10th, 1945. She jumped into the freezing Sumida River to escape the furious firestorm consuming everything it’s path. Hours after she managed to pull herself to an area along the banks that was safe. She headed towards a contained fire underneath a bridge to get some warmth but had no idea the fire was a pile of corpses. She lost her father and sister when they froze to death and drown in the Sumida. Their bodies were taken out 3 days later.
Each time I stare at the murky waters of the Sumida I can’t imagine the sorrow Mrs. Kiyooka carried all of her life.
