Photo Essays : Hiroshima Team

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Before we departed for Hiroshima, we decided to take the approach of going out and shooting whatever we could find, making “finder” our theme. From over 5,000 photos that we ultimately took, we selected 25 under the title, “Finding the Richness.”

We had a tight schedule from day one that was tough at times, but we were able to have a fun and meaningful trip. Along with members of the photography club of Shobara Kakuchi Senior High School, we laughed together and encouraged each other.

In the city of Hiroshima, we took pictures of places like the Peace Memorial Park, capturing the appeals of atomic bomb survivors and the faces of activists. We were warmly welcomed by our host families in Shobara. We visited artisans who showed us how traditional skills and new technologies coexist. We also visited Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. At Bihoku National Hillside Park, we encountered the genuine smiles of local children. Finally, in Onomichi, an old port city, we wandered through alleys so small they aren’t marked on maps, and took shots of people’s lives, dogs, and cats.

We met many people and felt many new things. For example, Emily felt her dark image of Hiroshima as a destroyed city evaporate, Daniel savored the kind, gentle atmosphere of the countryside, Sawako relished the area’s lush landscape and vast skies, and Kosuke was struck by people’s sincerity.

“Finding the Richness” is what brings together all that the four of us felt and thought about. By “rich,” we are not referring to economic or material wealth, but rather people’s warmth and nature’s abundance, the coexistence of the past and present. This is the richness we found through our camera viewfinders.

Hiroshima is a place of many faces. It is, of course, a place where the atomic bomb was dropped, but there is more to it than that. Through people, nature, and tradition, we feel that we were able to learn the meaning of true riches.