| “West end of Miyuki Bridge. On the left is the railing of the Bridge. A temporary medical treatment station had been hurriedly set up in front of the Senda-machi police box, and injured people were waiting for treatment. There were many students from Hiroshima Girls Commercial School and 1st Hiroshima Prefectural Junior High School who had been involved in building demolition work when the atomic bomb was dropped. 2 police officers were working there, providing first-aid treatment applying oil that they had brought from the provisions depot. The 1st photo was taken by Yoshito Matsushige (January 2, 1913 – January 16, 2005) slightly after 1100 Hours at the western edge of Miyuki Bridge, located about 2.2 kilometers (1.36 miles) from the hypocenter. Men and women collapsed or squatting, a woman holding a baby, female students receiving first aid, and police officers are all captured in the photo. The bridge’s parapet on the downstream side (at left) had collapsed due to the bomb’s blast. The building on the left is the Senda-machi police station, and the building behind the police station is the Hiroshima Technical Institute, predecessor to the Hiroshima University Faculty of Engineering. The site is now Senda Park, following relocation of the university. Matsushige joined Geibinichinichi Newspaper Corporation in 1941. After the company was merged with the Chugoku Shimbun Company, he was assigned to the photography department. After 1944, he also worked as a press report group member at Chugoku Regional Military Headquarters. Matsushige, then 32 years old, experienced the atomic bombing in his home in Midori-machi. Immediately after the bombing, he tried to enter the city to go to his office at the Chugoku Shimbun Company. As the flames blocked his way, he returned to Miyuki Bridge. As a press photographer, he tried to take photos of the terrible state of Miyuki Bridge, but faced with the hellish scenes in front of him, he could not make himself press the shutter. After struggling in that spot for over 30 minutes, he finally steeled himself and pressed the shutter, but later worried that the dead and injured victims might have thought he was merciless, because he was taking photos instead of trying to help them. The 5 photos that Matsushige took on August 6 are the only 1st-hand, on-location, visual testimonies to the event from Hiroshima city. With the Chugoku Shimbun Building destroyed, the film was processed in a makeshift film laboratory, and washed with river water. The photo “Tragedy at Miyuki Bridge” was published in the newspaper for the 1st time on July 6, 1946, in the Evening Edition Hiroshima, a newspaper published by the Chugoku Shimbun at a separate company. It was not the Chugoku Shimbun’s regular publication. The subtitle “United States magazine publishes photos all around the world” also appeared, but the photos actually were published in LIFE mMagazine in September 1952, after the Allied occupation had ended. The heading was thought to have been used to evade press censorship put in place by the occupation forces. After his retirement from the Chugoku Shimbun Company in 1969, he started talking about his A-bomb experience as a witness. In 1978, together with others from Hiroshima who took photographs of the atomic bombing, and with the families of A-bomb photographers who had passed away, he formed the Association of Photographers of the Atomic (Bomb) Destruction of Hiroshima. He dedicated much of his life to the preservation and organization of A-bomb photos. He died in 2005.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii1829.jpg |
| Image Size | 798.36 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2000 x 1918 |
| Photographer | Yoshito Matsushige |
| Photographer Title | Chugoku Shimbun |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 6, 1945 |
| Location | Miyuki Bridge |
| City | Hiroshima |
| State or Province | Hiroshima |
| Country | Japan |
| Archive | Hiroshima Peace Museum |
| Record Number | 110719 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
Author of the World War II Multimedia Database