On Friday the eighth of march 2013 there was an official opening of the:
"Memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki exhibition at the Brisbane Square Library".
This exhibition explores historical accounts of the atomic bombing of Japan in 1945. The audience was privileged to hear via SKYPE, the account of one Mr Keijiro Matsushima, who was twelve and a school boy in Hiroshima during World War II. As the audience sat entranced by this courteous and enigmatic elderly man, who told of how an ordinary day became a day that even now is remembered so vividly. As this gentle man retold his version of the days events the audience experienced a different framing of the now infamous A-bomb nuclear missile strike. Matsushima used descriptions that defied euro- centric notions of historical inquiry ; one such image was, "it sounded like a 100 thunders" [when the bomb hit the ground]. This 12 year old boy in this moment of a 100 thunders prayed to the gods of his belief and tried to make sense of what had happened. Matsushima's visual descriptions, of the destruction he witnessed, and the 'zombie like' people who walked arms out-stretched, skin peeling from their bodies in great long lines out of Central Hiroshima. Are vastly different from the Jubilant cries of American and allied troops that the war was finally over.
The "Memories of Hiroshima: Education talks"- an exhibit where teachers may bring students to explore, offers a completely different framing of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing of 1945, the exhibit also calls for peace and the destruction of all nuclear weapons. The artifacts, are priceless. The one pictured, was discussed on the opening night and is a pocket watch which has stopped at the time of the bombing. This not often heard perspective reminds us that World War II had many causalities, many being civilian and innocent.
Image Source: Taken on the night of the 8-3-2013 at the Brisbane Square library exhibition entitled, "Memories of Hiroshima"- more information can be found at the link below:
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