An 81-year-old woman from Nagasaki Prefecture has claimed she may be the woman in a 1945 picture displayed at a war exhibition here, organizers said Wednesday.
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| The photo, now on display at an exhibition in Nagasaki |
Shizuyo Yotsuda was referring to a picture depicting a woman standing with a baby on her back and a pot in her hands in the devastated city following the U.S. atomic bombing on Aug. 9, 1945.
Yotsuda said she learned of the picture being displayed at the "Nichiran Senso Gembaku Ten" (Exhibition on the Japan-Netherlands War and Atomic Bomb), which opened Friday, from her grandchild, who saw it published in a newspaper.
She said the black-strapped sandals, usually worn by men, and the belt the woman in the picture is wearing resemble those she herself was wearing at the time.
Yotsuda said she was taking refuge at a shelter about 1 km from the hypocenter when the city was hit by the bomb. "I may have been holding the pot to pick up the remains of my husband and father," she said, adding that she cannot recount the exact details as she wandered around the area after the bombing.
"At the time, I was so absent-minded. I did not know I was even being photographed," she said.
The photograph is believed to have been taken by the late Japanese army photographer Yosuke Yamahata, who entered Nagasaki a day after the atomic blast and documented its aftermath.
The Nagasaki event marks the first time the picture has been displayed.