NAGASAKI (Japan 1945)

In 1945 there was no photographer who arrived more quickly in Nagasaki to survey the damage from the atomic bomb than Yosuke Yamahata. He was already in the city the day after the bombardment, taking hundreds of photographs within twelve hours – the most extensive photographic document of the immediate aftermath. Within two weeks his photos appeared in the Japanese magazine Mainichi Shibun. Once the Americans had Japan under their control they imposed censorship that prevented the distribution of Yamahata’s photographs. It was only after the restrictions were lifted in 1952 that they would appear in Life.