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Rumi Hanagaki

Saturday, August 3rd, 2024

“I lost my memory for 58 years. I also wished I had not remembered. Now I believe god asked me to remember so I could tell others what happened.”

-Rumi Hanagaki, atomic bomb survivor

Rumi Hanagaki was five years old when the atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima. She was 1.7km from the hypocenter. On the morning of August 6th, 1945, Rumi, her grandmother and aunt were inside their home. Her mother was doing the laundry in the yard carrying her younger brother on her back. Then suddenly there was a flash. In an instant fire spread all over. The house was toppled. A chest of drawers fell on Rumi. She managed to free herself from underneath and run outside. Her mother, brother; who was blown across the yard ran to the bamboo grove nearby. The grove caught on fire immediately. The grass ignited into sparks and bamboo swelled in the heat and exploded, making a huge clanging sound. Splinters of shattered bamboo scattering everywhere, they ran in horror.

While escaping, Rumi was speechless as she encountered dreadful sights. She saw a doll that her mother made, burning quietly without any smoke or fire. The landscape was struin with birds burnt to charcoal and burnt dogs still wearing collars. She came across a woman sitting in a burnt field crying “I can’t leave with my son buried in this rubble.” Rumi passed a black lump with water gushing out. They realized that the lump were burnt bodies without limbs, totally black and swollen like rubber were piled up. Her mother hugged her tightly and said, “Don’t look!”

Because of the shock, she lost her memories about the atomic bomb for 58 years. When she was 63 years old, her memories suddenly returned.

This portrait is a part of my From Above project, which is a collection of portraits and reminiscences of atomic bomb survivors and firebombing survivors from Dresden, Tokyo, Coventry, Rotterdam, and Wielun. From Above is permanently exhibited at the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Hall for Atomic Bomb Victims. It has also been exhibited in museums, exhibition spaces, and at the United Nations. From Above was released as a limited edition book that was sold at PhotoEye.com. It is sold out, but I have the last copies. Contact me if you’re interested.

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Max van Trommel

Saturday, May 11th, 2024

“On the first day of the war there was a big bang- a bomb fell nearby and destroyed the facade in front of our house. I went into the cellar and hid in a baby carriage for all five days of the war. On the last day the Germans bombed Rotterdam. I came out of the cellar and saw that the sky was red because Rotterdam was burning.” -Max van Trommel

The bombing of the Dutch city of Rotterdam by the Luftwaffe occurred on May 14th,1940, four days after the start of the German invasion. The fierce resistance in Rotterdam was to be broken and the Dutch were forced to capitulate. Despite a truce that had been agreed in advance, the city was bombed under circumstances and is still controversial. The historic city center was destroyed, 900 people died and 85,000 people lost their homes. The Dutch government surrendered the following day and thus spared further cities a similar fate. Rotterdam remained occupied until the end of the Second World War.

During the occupation Max’s family suffered under the anti-Jewish measures. Max was the one to bring his sister away to a hiding place and later, he and his brother found a place in different locations in the east of the country. He spent the last three years of the war in hiding.

“During the first year not much changed. Then the Germans ordered us to wear yellow stars on our clothing. I had never been to a synagogue. I didn’t even know I was Jewish until they told me. Laws saying that Jews not allowed to travel on buses and trams, or go to public markets. That was the first serious sign that life had changed. Then they started issuing food coupons. We couldn’t buy certain things because there wasn’t enough food. My mother asked me to go around the city on bicycle to redeem the coupons. That was horrible because I went to shops outside my neighborhood where the owners didn’t know me. When they saw the yellow star they yelled at me to get out. It gave me an awful feeling that I was abnormal and wasn’t a part of the population.

When Jewish families began to be transported, my grandfather said we had to flee. My sister, 4, had to be brought to an address in Den Haag. My mother was unable to do that so I had to. I didn’t know the people who would be caring for my sister. My sister was anxious and felt something was wrong and didn’t want to leave my side. But I had to. The next day, my sister went to play in the garden then I left which was horrible because I betrayed my sister. I always hoped to apologize to my sister at the end of the war. The first time I saw my sister after the war, I spoke to her about it but she didn’t remember. My sister committed suicide at the age of 21. She wrote us a letter saying “I am not normal.” Which we understood because this is how we felt after the war. After the war I discovered my grandparents were hiding close to where I was. They had been betrayed and transported to Sobibor where they were murdered.”

This portrait is a part of my From Above project, which is a collection of portraits and reminiscences of atomic bomb survivors and firebombing survivors from Dresden, Tokyo, Coventry, Rotterdam and Wielun. A portion of From Above is permanently exhibited at the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Hall for Atomic Bomb Victims. It has also been exhibited in numerous museums and exhibition spaces. From Above was released as a limited edition book that was sold at PhotoEye.com. The book is sold out from the site, but I have the last copies. Contact me if you’re interested.

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Margarethe Buhr, Dresden firebombing survivor

Thursday, February 15th, 2024

“I didn’t see anything. I didn’t cry a tear. Nothing at all.”
-Margarethe Buhr, Dresden firebombing survivor

“After the first attack, our flat was almost untouched. Following the second wave of bombing the street was completely ablaze. Families fled into the cellar. In the cellar, there was an argument between my father and an officer in the Wehrmacht. The officer had lost his mind and was threatening to kill his own family. My father tried to calm him down, but the altercation escalated. The men decided to continue the struggle outside in the street, but they never returned. My father’s charred remains were later discovered by the front door.

We stayed in the dark cellar until the morning. We crawled across the floor but were exhausted because of the smoke and lack of oxygen. A young man helped bring my ill sister to the garden in front of the home. My brother was blinded by the smoke. When we went outside, I witnessed destruction all around. None of our home remained standing.

I had to leave my sick sister in the garden, covered with a coat borrowed from a stranger. With my brother, sister-in-law, and their two children, we walked toward the Great Garden. Arriving on the Tiergartenstraße I realized that every house had been hit by bombs. Among the debris, a woman stood in the middle of the street. I explained that we needed an ambulance for my sister. Then the woman pointed something. There were five or six disintegrated ambulances that had melted in the catastrophic heat.”

Mrs. Buhr was twenty-five-years-old at the time of the attack. She lived in an area that was a short walk from the main train station, which was completely obliterated. She returned to Dresden a week after the bombings, nothing was left of her family’s home. She learned that her sister and father had burnt to death in the fires. One of her brothers disappeared in the forest while traveling, never to be found. Her surviving brother helped clear rubble from the area where their house once stood. Mrs. Buhr’s sister was found under the wreckage. She was cremated in the town square, the Altmarkt.

This portrait is a part of my From Above project, which is a collection of portraits and reminiscences of atomic bomb survivors and firebombing survivors from Dresden, Tokyo, Coventry, Rotterdam and Wielun. A portion of From Above is permanently exhibited at the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Hall for Atomic Bomb Victims. It has also been exhibited in museums and exhibition spaces throughout Asia, Europe, North America and including the United Nations.

From Above was released as a limited edition book that was sold at PhotoEye.com. The book is sold out on the site, but I have the last 20 copies that can be bought directly from me. Contact me through social media or at paule.saviano@gmail.com if you’re interested in purchasing a book.

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John Huthwaite, Coventry blitz survivor

Sunday, February 11th, 2024

“I was about ten years old when Coventry was destroyed.  After the raids, we used to go out and play in ruined houses.  We used to find a lot of shell fragments and bits of bombs.  Sadly, damage was also caused by our own anti-aircraft shells.  The shrapnel from the shells exploded in the sky and showered down onto the roofs.  

Sometimes, after the raids, they would bring in crashed planes.  I remember getting into the cockpit of a Messerschmitt 109.  There was hatred against the Germans.  Once an airplane went down, the pilot was pitchforked by a farmer.”

-John Huthwaite, Coventry blitz survivor’

The British city of Coventry was bombed several times during the Second World War by the German Luftwaffe. The most devastating of those attacks came on the evening of November 14th, 1940. During “Operation Moonlight Sonata,” high explosive, incendiary,and landmine bombs cascaded upon the city. When the fires smoldered, the majority of the city lay in ruin. The city center and more than 4,000 homes were destroyed. The raid had resulted in such epic levels of destruction for the time that the Germans used the term “Coventrated’ when later describing similar levels of destruction to enemy cities.

This portrait is a part of my From Above project, which is a collection of portraits and reminiscences of atomic bomb survivors and firebombing survivors from Dresden, Tokyo, Coventry, Rotterdam and Wielun. A portion of From Above is permanently exhibited at the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Hall for Atomic Bomb Victims. It has also been exhibited in museums and exhibition spaces throughout Asia, Europe, North America and including the United Nations.

From Above was released as a limited edition book that was sold at PhotoEye.com. The book is sold out on the site, but I have the last 20 copies that can be bought directly from me. Contact me through social media or at paule.saviano@gmail.com if you’re interested in purchasing a book.

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Jean Taylor, Coventry blitz survivor

Thursday, February 8th, 2024

“We lost quite a lot of friends and we never found the bodies of some.”
-Jean Taylor, Coventry blitz survivor

Jean Taylor was eleven years old when the air raid sirens sounded at 7pm (19:00). She, her younger brothers and mother, crammed into a bomb shelter with 400 others. The shelter was basically a deep hole dug across the road that had two buckets used as toilets.

“In the morning, we came out of the shelter. Everything looked horrible. All the windows at our home were blown out. We had no water, electricity, or gas. In the estate next to us there was a huge crater the depth of two double-decker buses. My mother made a little fire in the garden to cook a pot of stew. I told my mother I was going to school. She insisted that I wouldn’t make it there, but I still tried. I got as far as half a street when I began to see bodies covered in blankets and firemen with no water as everything was burning. Then a fireman said to me:

‘What do you think you’re doing?’

‘I’m going to school.’

‘You can’t get to school!’

As I was standing there in my school uniform, one of my classmates came. He took me through the burning rubble,and we finally got there. We started in September with 27 students in the class. After the blitz ,here were 17 remaining. We never discovered what happened to the other 10.”

The British city of Coventry was bombed several times during the Second World War by the German Luftwaffe. The most devastating of those attacks came on the evening of November 14th, 1940. During “Operation Moonlight Sonata,” high explosive, incendiary,and landmine bombs cascaded upon the city. When the fires smoldered ,he majority of the city lay in ruin. The city center and more than 4,000 homes were destroyed. The raid had resulted in such epic levels of destruction for the time that the Germans used the term “Coventrated’ when later describing similar levels of destruction to enemy cities.

This portrait is a part of my From Above project, which is a collection of portraits and reminiscences of atomic bomb survivors and firebombing survivors from Dresden, Tokyo, Coventry, Rotterdam and Wielun. A portion of From Above is permanently exhibited at the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Hall for Atomic Bomb Victims. It has also been exhibited in museums and exhibition spaces throughout Asia, Europe, North America and including the United Nations.

From Above was released as a limited edition book that was sold at PhotoEye.com. The book is sold out on the site, but I have the last 20 copies that can be bought directly from me. Contact me through social media or at paule.saviano@gmail.com if you’re interested in purchasing a book.

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Alan Hartley, Coventry blitz survivor

Tuesday, February 6th, 2024

“To see the searchlights sweeping the sky, hearing the loud noise of exploding bombs and the fires- it was like a great big barn fire. Because you were occupied, you didn’t have time to be afraid. Until 70 years after, I wonder how did I do that? It took courage, but it had to be done.

On the night of November 14th, 1940 I was an Air Raid Precautions messenger in Coventry. After midnight, the Germans started dropping canisters of incendiaries. When the canisters got to a certain height all the small incendiary bombs would fall. They would aim for the roofs of houses so that when the incendiary landed on the roof, the house would burn. The burning houses lit up the target area to make the factories visible which was what they were after. We were going around to put these incendiary bombs out. But the Germans knew and put an explosive cap on the tail of some. Our warden was injured while trying to extinguish a bomb. Suddenly it exploded and threw hot metal into his face and hands. His clothes were on fire.

Someone had to get an ambulance for the warden. I told the deputy that I would take my bike- but she said “No, I have children your age. It’s too dangerous at the height oft he blitz!” I told her, “This is my job! I’m going!” I got on my bike and rode towards the center of the city. The sky was glowing and there were flames, sparks and smoke all over. Big shards of red hot shrapnel and ammunition were falling around me because whatever the anti-aircraft guns shot up had to come down when the shells burst. When I got near the city center, houses and shops were burning and at the end of Spon Street there was a huge crater 30 yards deep. Through the flames I could see water at the bottom of the crater because the River Sherbourne goes under the city. I had to cross the crater to get to Broadgate. Fortunately there was two feet of pavement and a wall on my right that didn’t fall into the crater. With my tin hat and gas mask, I carried the bike on my shoulder and edged my way along the wall until I got to the other side. I couldn’t ride my bike further because there was rubble and glass sprune all over. As I went up a narrow road there was a shopping arcade with a glass roof. Heat and flames were shooting out of it and the whole thing collapsed with a big roar of broken glass. When I got to Broadgate, in front of me was the Council House and across the road an incendiary had just landed on the cycle shop. Outside there was a fireman with a blackened face, he stood there holding his hose with just a trickle of water coming out because all the water mains were damaged.”
-Alan Hartley, Coventry blitz survivor

The British city of Coventry was bombed several times during the Second World War by the German Luftwaffe. The most devastating of those attacks came on the evening of November 14th 1940. During “Operation Moonlight Sonata”, high explosive, incendiary and landmine bombs cascaded upon the city. When the fires smoldered the majority of the city lay in ruin – the city center and more than 4,000 homes were destroyed. The raid had resulted in such epic levels of destruction for the time that the Germans used the term “Coventrated’ when later describing similar levels of destruction to enemy cities.

This portrait is a part of my From Above project, which is a collection of portraits and reminiscences of atomic bomb survivors and firebombing survivors from Dresden, Tokyo, Coventry, Rotterdam and Wielun. From Above is permanently exhibited at the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Hall for Atomic Bomb Victims. It has also been exhibited in museums and exhibition spaces throughout Asia, Europe, North America and including the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

From Above was released as a limited edition book that was sold at PhotoEye.com. The book is sold out on the site, but I have the last 20 copies that can be bought directly from me. Contact me through social media or at paule.saviano@gmail.com if you’re interested in purchasing a book.

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Anita John

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024

“It’s hard to put into words, it left a mark on our lives.”
-Anita John

I received the sad news that Mrs. Anita John passed away a few months ago. She was 12 years old when Dresden was destroyed by fire bombs on February 13th and 14th, 1945.  

Mrs. John was one of the first people I photographed in Dresden for my From Above project. I photographed her in front of the destroyed church, Trinitatiskirche, where her parents were married and where she received confirmation. It is located a few streets from where she survived the fire bombings. For most of her life, she lived just a couple of minutes away from her original home and the church.  
The family survived the first bombardment during the attack by taking shelter in the cellar of their home. Anita remembered her mother lying on top of her as the bombs rained down on the house. After the first wave, the roof of their flat was on fire and the windows had shattered.  However the first floor of the building was not yet ablaze. She saw a china set sitting peacefully on a small table, still resting in the exact spot they were prior to the bombing.

They brought valuables to the cellar to save them from the fire. Her father asked what she wanted from home, she said, “my doll carriage and school bag”. They did not evacuate the area and were caught unaware by the second attack. Fire raged outside the steel cellar door. It was producing extremely high temperatures inside the cellar. Oxygen quickly became scarce.  

Anita and her family lay down on the floor together with the other inhabitants of the building. She covered her mouth with a damp bathrobe that helped her to breathe whilst smoke filled the cellar. They all survived, until the immense heat from the raging firestorm consumed all the oxygen inside the cellar. All, but one, died of smoke inhalation.

Sixteen hours later, a soldier looking through the ruins for his wife broke a small window accessible from the street. Oxygen rushed into the bunker. Only Anita woke up amongst the dead. Her parent’s bodies lay silent, close by on the floor. The soldier saw Anita’s body move and took her to the aid station. The water in the damp bathrobe had allowed just enough oxygen to keep Anita breathing. The last memory Anita has of her parents is telling her father “I want to lie here”. Her mother responded, “Then let’s stay”.

I hadn’t seen Mrs. John in years. I kept in contact through three of her childhood friends that were photographed in From Above. I also photographed Mrs. John and her best friend, Mrs. Nora Lang, in front of the Trinitatiskirche. It was an honor to have Mrs. John as a friend.

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Inosuke Hayasaki

Tuesday, August 22nd, 2023

“I thought the world was exploding. I can remember it as if it were yesterday.”

-Inosuke Hayasaki

地球が爆発しているんじゃないかと思った。その時のことは今でも昨日のことのように覚えている。

I received the sad news that Mr. Inosuke Hayasaki passed away on April 28th. Mr. Hayasaki was 14 years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. He was working at a Mitsubishi arms factory 1km away from the hypocenter. I photographed him solemnly standing at the hypocenter, underneath the exact point where the bomb detonated over Nagasaki. It’s usually a place that a few random people walk through to get from one part of Nagasaki to another. That early morning in December, we were alone. Only the birds were criss crossing from one tree to another while we quietly photographed.

His portrait was taken years after my book, From Above, was published. But it was exhibited at the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Hall for Atomic Bomb Victims in 2017.

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Yoshitoshi Fukahori

Thursday, August 17th, 2023

I received the sad news that Mr. Yoshitoshi Fukahori passed away from pneumonia on May 21st. He was 93 years old. The first time I met Mr. Fukahori was in 2010 during my second trip to Nagasaki. He was fourteen years old and 3.5km away from the hypocenter when the atomic bomb was detonated.  

Hours after the bomb was dropped, he and a friend went to retrieve the bodies of his older sister and uncle that were trapped underneath the rubble of their home located close to the hypocenter. They didn’t reach the house until the next day because the fire and debris made it impossible to get to. His aunt’s body was never found. “My sister didn’t die instantly. I regretted not coming to help her the day before. That memory still hurts me. On August 12th, I went back to Nagasaki with my mother to cremate my sister. My mother never looked at the fire. She stood still, staring at the ground, praying. That was the most difficult sight.”

On my second trip to Nagasaki, I asked Ayumi if I could meet Mr. Fukahori. I read an article that after the war, Mr. Fukahori started speaking about his experiences. But he believed words would not be enough, and he established the Committee for Research of Photographs and Materials of the Atomic Bombing in 1979. He collected more than 3,000 photographs taken of the bomb’s aftermath. Many of the photos depict similarly harrowing scenes to those Mr. Fukahori witnessed. I was interested because he wanted to tell the story through photographs. Most hibakusha use their words or paint and pictures to describe their experiences. Mr. Fukahori’s collection of photographs hit me harder because it is a snapshot of reality. No imagination was needed, and the brutality was right there in the photograph.    

I visited Mr. Fukahori for the last time in December 2018.  He had moved into a home for the elderly, but he was still sharp and affable. He spent an hour talking to us and joking how the staff at the elderly home had him on a schedule to exercise.  This the last frame I photographed of him when he walked Ayumi and me to the elevator.  I photographed from the elevator as he disappeared behind the curtain.

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Yoshiro Yamawaki

Friday, November 18th, 2022

…Nagasaki…This morning I received the sad news that Yoshiro Yamawaki passed away on September 17th.  I photographed Mr. Yamawaki during my first trip to Nagasaki in September 2008.  His portrait is in my book, From Above, and has been exhibited several times.  He was the only hibakusha, atomic bomb survivor, during that visit who spoke to me in English.  He learned English when he retired so that he could communicate his experiences about the atomic bomb and educate more people about the dangers of nuclear weapons. 

Mr. Yamawaki was eleven-years-old when the atomic bomb was detonated over Nagasaki.  He was at home 2.2km from the hypocenter.  His testimony was about him and his brother venturing through a sea of rubble to find their father’s body at the Mitsubushi Steel Works Factory the day after the bomb destroyed the city.  The two young boys then had to cremate the body.  The next day they returned to the burned out factory to get the ashes, but because of the lack of wood the body wasn’t fully cremated.  They wept at the sight of their father’s lifeless body and vowed never to tell their mother they weren’t able to cremate his body. 

I only saw Mr. Yamawaki twice after my initial trip to Nagasaki.  He came to the exhibition at the Nagasaki Peace Museum in 2010 and the exhibition at the Peace Memorial Hall in 2017.  He was a true ambassador, and I wish more of the people we assign as diplomats would learn a lesson from his desire to communicate the truth about the suffering war and nuclear weapons cause.  I’ll always remember him insisting that he tell me his testimony in English.  His efforts educated everyone he spoke to, but the job of educating the world about the horrors of war and the use of nuclear weapons is far from completed. 

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