Mother cradling her baby. The artist encountered the still-standing charred figures the morning after the bomb was dropped, about 1,200 meters from the hypocenter.
This image displays the grim reality of how families were affected by the bombing. The uncertainty of the fate of the mother and child reflects how many families were torn apart, uncertain if they would ever see their loved ones again.
Intimation of hell also took the graphic form of what is well known in the special lexicon of the bombs as "the procession of ghosts." When the sudden flash (pika) of the explosion occurred, people in the streets instinctively threw their hands over their eyes; and those facing the explosion, even several miles away, often suffered severe burns on their forearms and hands
This natural reaction of shielding yourself from the flash of light with your hands led to a haunting visual of skin almost melting off. Smaller details like this really help paint just how gruesome the bombing was.
They drank from these because they were parched, and climbed into them in the hope, again, of escaping the firestorm. In one survivor's picture, a pregnant woman floats in the cistern and burned bodies hang over its edges. ("My chest hurts as I apply the red paint," the man who drew this in 1975 wrote.)
This image displays just how violent and destructive the aftermath of the bomb was. What was originally supposed to be a tool to help minimize damage (the cisterns) became a symbol of death and pain.
Hiroshima in flames on the afternoon of August 6. The writing on the painting speaks of encountering “living Hell in this world.”
This image shows not only the destruction of the city and the mass amount of dead, but also some survivors. They are depicted as suffering and scared, almost as if they are worse off than the dead. It truly looks like a classic depiction of hell.