Posts Tagged ‘Tokyo Fire Bombings’

From Above exhibition at Gallery EF, Tokyo

Wednesday, March 14th, 2018

..March 2018.. ..Tokyo..

From Above exhibition at Gallery EF.

From Above will be exhibited at Gallery EF in Tokyo, March 11th-April 2nd, 2018.

This From Above exhibition corresponds with the 73rd anniversary of the Tokyo fire bombings that destroyed the city during WWII. It features portraits of firebombing survivors from Tokyo, and other WWII fire bombing survivors from Dresden, Coventry, Rotterdam and Wielun. A small selection of atomic bomb survivor portraits will also be shown to display all the areas that From Above has focused on.

Gallery EF is where the From Above project was conceived in 2008 and first exhibited in 2009. It is the project’s spiritual home.

From Above has been exhibited at Gallery EF several times but hasn’t returned in a couple of years. So there are plenty of new portraits that will be shown for the first time.

Gallery Ef
2-19-18 Kaminarimon, Taito-ku,
Tokyo 111-0034
www.gallery-ef.com

Gallery EF
111-0034
東京都台東区雷門 2-19-18
www.gallery-ef.com

TEL. 03-3841-0442
FAX. 03-3841-9079

From Above exhibition at Gallery EF, Tokyo

Thursday, March 8th, 2018

From Above will be exhibited at Gallery EF in Tokyo, March 11th-April 2nd, 2018.

This From Above exhibition corresponds with the 73rd anniversary of the Tokyo fire bombings that destroyed the city during WWII. It features portraits of firebombing survivors from Tokyo, and other WWII fire bombing survivors from Dresden, Coventry, Rotterdam and Wielun. A small selection of atomic bomb survivor portraits will also be shown to display all the areas that From Above has focused on.

Gallery EF is where the From Above project was conceived in 2008 and first exhibited in 2009. It is the project’s spiritual home.

From Above has been exhibited at Gallery EF several times but hasn’t returned in a couple of years. So there are plenty of new portraits that will be shown for the first time.

Gallery Ef
2-19-18 Kaminarimon, Taito-ku,
Tokyo 111-0034
www.gallery-ef.com

Gallery EF
111-0034
東京都台東区雷門 2-19-18
www.gallery-ef.com

TEL. 03-3841-0442
FAX. 03-3841-9079

From Above exhibition at Gallery EF, Tokyo

Tuesday, February 27th, 2018

..February 2018.. ..Tokyo..

Metropolis Magazine has featured the upcoming From Above exhibition in it’s event calender.

From Above, featuring portraits of atomic bomb and fire bombing victims from WWII, will be exhibited at Gallery EF in Tokyo, March 13th-April 2nd, 2018.

This From Above exhibition corresponds with the 73rd anniversary of the Tokyo fire bombings that destroyed the city during WWII. It features portraits of firebombing survivors from Tokyo, and other WWII fire bombing survivors from Dresden, Coventry, Rotterdam and Wielun. A small selection of atomic bomb survivor portraits will also be shown to display all the areas that From Above has focused on.

Masatoshi Tsunenari

Thursday, January 25th, 2018

..January 2018.. ..Nagasaki..

Today I received the sad news that atomic bomb survivor Mr. Masatoshi Tsunenari passed away a couple of months ago. He was 89 years old.

I hadn’t seen Mr. Tsunenari since July 2010. He was a soft spoken person with a lot of compassion.

I will always be thankful that he agreed to meet with Mrs. Haruyo Nihei, a Tokyo fire bombing survivor, who wanted to tell her experience of surviving the fire bombing of Tokyo to an atomic bomb survivor. It was an amazing moment to see them listen and exchange stories. Tragic moments in time that changed their lives instantly.

Seeing Mr. Tsunenari listen to and accept Mrs. Nihei’s story was moving. I believe it was a great feeling of relief to Ms. Nihei to be able to share her experience.

This is there portrait I took near the hypocenter where the atomic bomb was detonated in Nagasaki. It’s also in my book From Above and I will show it next time the exhibition returns to Nagasaki.

From Above Books

Monday, September 11th, 2017

..Tokyo..

The remaining From Above books being shipped from Japan. No more available after these are sold. From Above, is my limited edition book, featuring portraits and testimonials of atomic bomb survivors and fire bombing survivors from Dresden and Tokyo.

They can be purchase exclusively by clicking this link.
http://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?catalog=I1040&i&i2

Mrs. Haruyo Nihei

Thursday, March 9th, 2017

Senso-Ji, Asakusa, Tokyo….

Wednesday, March 8th, 2017

..October 2008 ..Senso-Ji, Asakusa, Tokyo..


Mrs. Yoshiko Hashimoto

Saturday, August 27th, 2016

..August 2016.. ..New York..

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Earlier this week I received the sad news that Mrs. Yoshiko Hashimoto passed away in February at the age of 94. Mrs. Hashimoto was the first Tokyo fire bombing survivor I photographed.

I photographed her in an cemetery containing the unidentified bones of many who died when Tokyo was razed on March 10th, 1945. At the time of the firebombings Mrs. Hashimoto was 24 years old. Running with her younger sisters and her infant son scrapped onto her back, Mrs. Hashimoto was chased by the ravenous fires for hours. Her younger sister was engulfed by the inferno when she ran into a stampede of fleeing people. Finally at the end of a burning labyrinth, Mrs. Hashimoto was corned on a bridge. Her only option for survival was a desperate jump far below into the frigid Tatagawa River with her son still on her back. The high tide allowed them to be carried by a strong current towards floating wooden debris.

“As the changed face of my neighborhood passed me in a blur. I could hardly recognize it through my aching eyes. I couldn’t feel sadness or surprise. I just pulled along on that cart while clinging my boy to my chest.”

Her testimony about the surviving the destruction of Tokyo was brutal. The last time I saw Mrs. Hashimoto was walking in Asakusa in 2010. I will always remember her and I consider myself lucky that she shared her story with me. It was an honor to have known her.

From Above at Gallery EF, Tokyo

Monday, March 14th, 2016

..March 2016.. ..Tokyo..

From Above shown at Gallery EF during the 3/10 commemoration of the Tokyo fire bombings during WWII. A big thank you to Ikko Suzuki and Kirara Kawachi for having From Above be a part of their annual performance, Words From 100,000 People, that commemorate the lives of the men, women and children who died during horrific fire bombing on March 10th, 1945. Gallery EF is one of the few buildings that survived the attack which turned all of eastern Tokyo into scorched earth.

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Yoshiko Hashimoto

Wednesday, March 9th, 2016

..March 10th, 1945.. ..on the banks of the Tatagawa River, Tokyo…

Mrs. Yoshiko Hashimoto