..May 2013.. ..New York..
Mrs. Reiko Yamada, an atomic bomb survivor from Hiroshima, viewing a UN exhibition about amputees caused by landmines around the world.
Posts Tagged ‘From Above’
Mrs. Reiko Yamada
Sunday, May 11th, 2014Shigeko Sasamori
Saturday, May 10th, 2014..May 2014.. ..New York..
Atomic bomb survivor and Hiroshima Maiden Shigeko Sasamori poses with a New York City high school student who sketched a portrait of her.
Shigeko survived was 13 years old when the atomic bomb was detonated over Hiroshima. She was so severely burned that she was unrecognizable. During 1955 she was brought to New York along with 25 other young girls for reconstructive surgery.
Mayor Taue of Nagasaki
Friday, May 9th, 2014..May 2013.. ..New York to Nagasaki..
Last week I was given the opportunity to present one the few remaining copies of From Above to Mayor Taue of Nagasaki.
Mayor Taue was a former photography student of Takahara-san, a good friend and hibakusha who wrote the introduction in From Above.
I feel honored that Mayor Taue received the book and that the faces and stories of the atomic bomb survivors and fire bombing survivors in the book will continue to have a voice.
A couple remaining copies of From Above are for sale exclusively at this link.
http://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?catalog=I1040
From Above photo exhibition at the United Nations
Friday, May 2nd, 2014..May 20014.. ..New York..
Some of my From Above portraits of hibakusha, atomic bomb survivors, were exhibited at the United Nations this week to coincide with the NPT Conference.
From Above Photography Exhibition at the United Nations from Paule Saviano on Vimeo.
Mr. Hiroshi Matsuzoe
Monday, April 14th, 2014..April 2014.. ..Nagasaki..
This morning I received the sad news that Mr. Hiroshi Matsuzoe passed away at the age of 83 in Nagasaki. Mr. Matsuzoe was one the first hibakusha, atomic bomb survivor, I photographed and interviewed for From Above. He was 14 years old when the atomic bomb detonated over Nagasaki.
Mr. Matsuzoe dedicated his life to informing students about the importance of abolishing nuclear weapons. Last year he lost his voice to cancer but still spread his message when doctor’s restored his voice by installing an electronic device in his voice box.
I will always remember my brief time spent with Mr. Matsuzoe. In the hallway of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum he showed me paintings he had made of scenes from that horrific time. He had seen two young girls badly injured in the street, one later underwent surgery without anesthesia. Mr. Matsuzoe never forgot the screams coming from the little girl at that moment. A couple of days after, he witnessed their cremation while walking in the street. “It was two girls with light makeup and wearing a beautiful Kimono. They were about to be cremated. After someone put fire on them I couldn’t watch. I ran away.”
Many years later Mr. Matsuzoe painted that painful scene onto a canvas. He never knew the identity of either girl but when the painting was shown relatives and teachers of the two girls were found. One of the mother’s sobbed when she saw the painting.
The last time I saw Mr. Matsuzoe was at the From Above exhibition in the Nagasaki Peace Museum. You can see him in this documentary shot by Community Media. He appears 8 minutes into the program.
From Above By Paule Saviano from paul saviano on Vimeo.
The best tribute you can give to him is to never forget the lessons of Nagasaki and Hiroshima; and not to tolerate the excuse of war being a justifiable reason to settle differences.
Ceremony at the Dresden Altmarkt
Friday, February 14th, 2014
Mrs. Ursula Skrbek
Tuesday, February 11th, 2014..May 2010.. ..Dresden..
Mrs. Skrbek and her family experienced the first wave of attacks over Dresden at home. She remembers shaking so much she couldn’t stand or sit. Her father tried his best to comfort her while bombs exploded above.
At the end of the first bombing raid they checked the house for fires. Just the windows were broken. While checking the roof for incendiaries they could see the entire city was burning.
Her father could see the grandmother’s home burning a close distance away. He ran to get her. When he returns home through the firestorm, his clothes were on fire and he could hardly see.
“He described it as Hell. People were fire. How can something this beautiful be destroyed?”
During the second attack they stayed in the cellar again. More people from nearby damaged homes join them. A huge detonation went off. The house next door received a direct hit and was completely toppled.
Rumble crashes through the basement. Mrs. Skrbek was hit and briefly knocked unconscious. She was covered by rumble with only her head showing. People started to dig her out. Her mother was also hurt and unconscious. They didn’t know where her father was.
Mrs. Skrbek tries to wake her unconscious mother. She stays there for a little while. Fear and shock flow through the cellar. Her mother regains conscious and they slowly exit an unlocked cellar door.
Outside a firestorm brews, sparks and intense heat ignite the air. The balcony from their home collapses to the street narrowly evading them. They were encircled by fire, destruction and death. Her mother collapses again.
Shortly after they’re helped by an emergency vehicle collecting survivors. Her mother suffered life threatening internal injuries.
After the bombings, Mrs. Skrbek was taken in by the Headmaster of a school. She was reunited with her grandmother at the end of February.
A former neighbor heard that her father was buried deep underneath the rubble of their collapsed home. In mid-March, a month after the bombings, his corpse was found burnt in a fetal position. They were able to identify him because of the wristwatch he was wearing. A neighbor helped deliver the coffin to bury him.
Mrs. Skrbek still keeps her father’s destroyed wristwatch in a little box.
She lived with the Headmaster’s family for a while. The Headmaster was later imprisoned by the Red Army and never seen again.
Mrs. Skrbek was photographed in the Dresden Altmarkt with a homemade doll that survived the war.
Mr. Heinz Meier
Monday, February 10th, 2014
Mrs. Hisayo Yamashita
Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014
..One Legged Torii Gate, Sanno Shinto, Urakami, Nagasaki, Less than 1km from the hypocenter of the atomic bomb..
Thursday, January 2nd, 2014