BLACK LIGHT DISTRICT
by Charlie Finch



Japanese history begins with Nagasaki. The superfluous cruelty of the United States in dropping a second atomic bomb on Japan sent a message that a third bomb and a fourth bomb were coming, that the annihilation of Hiroshima was not unique, a dread which has informed the world ever since and which stands as the centerpiece of post-war Japanese photography: Shomei Tomatsu’s 1966 photo book Nagasaki-11.02, features frozen snapshots of relics from the nuking, a stopped watch, a beer bottle.

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