Celebrating Thirty Years of East Asian Collections

Iijima Sōichi and Aihara Hidetsugu 飯島宗一,相原秀次,compilers, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945: A Photographic Record. Originally published as Shashinshū Genbaku o mitsumeru 写真集原爆を見つめる: 1945年広島・長崎.Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1981, pp. 224-225.

This photograph of a wall in Nagasaki shows the distinctive effect of the atomic bomb dropped by the United States in August 1945.  When the bomb was dropped a soldier and a ladder stood near the wall; they were vaporized, leaving a record similar to what is seen on an X-Ray. 

This book was acquired as part of the Hiroshima Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Warner Wells.  A Duke alumnus (B.A., M.D), Dr. Wells served as a surgical consultant (1949-1952) to the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, a team of professionals sent to Japan in 1950 to study the effects of the bombing in Hiroshima.  Atomic bombs are notable for their effect on the human body, amply documented in the Wells collection.