Tomatsu began taking photographs in 1950, when he was twenty years old, and living near an American military base in Nagoya. His images reflect the devastating impact of the war on the landscape and on the lives of his neighbors, as well as the continuing presence of the United States military, which extended long after the war had ended. Tomatsu first visited Nagasaki with the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Gensuikyo), but found himself returning year after year, drawn in shock and horror to the experiences endured by the hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombings in Japan. "What I saw in Nagasaki were not only the scars of war, but a never-ending postwar. I, who had thought of ruins only as the transmutation of the cityscape, learned that ruins lie within people as well."
Soldier, Spectre, Shaman: The Figure and the Second World War, October 24, 2015-March 20, 2016.
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