Today marks the anniversary of the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima by the United States.
You can download a complete PDF of the 1981 book The Unforgettable Fire - Pictures Drawn By Atomic Bomb Survivors, at this link on Public Collectors’ website. It is one of the most deeply moving collections of drawings you will ever see.
From the back cover: “The art in this book was a response to a request broadcast on a morning television program in Japan for drawings from atomic bomb survivors. The results were immediate. The television station was inundated with drawings. So powerful were the survivors’ desires to share their memories that they turned to whatever materials were at hand – pencils, crayons, watercolors, Magic Markers, colored pencils, India ink – and drew on the backs of calendars, advertisements, bills, or even the paper used to cover Japanese sliding doors. Some drew on the backs of children’s scribbled papers, probably those of their grandchildren.”
