Shomei Tomatsu was just 15 when Japan suffered the incalculable damage of two atomic bombs. His early experience of the devastations of war would later shape his distinct, modern, and quintessentially Japanese vision. Tomatsu has been internationally praised for his poetic images and ability to convey complex ideas about living in the aftermath of atomic warfare. His photographs are also amongst the earliest attempts to record the devastation from within.
'It was a historic scene. For all the warfare that has stormed the world since then, there has been no comparable catastrophe, no occasion when the full force of advanced weapons has been turned purposely on cities full of civilians. One hundred thousand people are said to have died in old Tokyo in March that year; some could not flee because the heat was so intense that their feet, melting, began to fuse with the tar of the streets. In the months that followed, half its houses burned, but Tokyo endured better than Osaka and Nagoya, Tomatsu’s home and that of the aircraft industry, where the count was 8.9 out of 10. A new word has been coined to describe the ravaged cities - yakinohara, or ‘burnt plains.’
Tomatsu’s work that addressed war and destruction did so primarily through implication. Bottle Melted and Deformed by Atomic Bomb Heat, Radiation, and Fire, Nagasaki shows the after-effects of bodies and objects transformed by atomic heat. In this case, a beer bottle has been contorted to appear almost animal-like in form. The beer bottle, often associated with leisure, freedom and relaxation, has taken on a different.mes aning, the image serving as a haunting reminder of the detrimental effects of war, both on Japan and Tomatsu’s life. The surrealist nature of the photograph has an unsettling, dreamlike power, similar to his photograph of a wristwatch, frozen at 11.02am on 9 August 1945.
Throughout the 1960s, Tomatsu’s photographic focus turned to the Americanisation of Japan and the subsequent effects their lingering presence had on Japanese identity. The influx of American brands and logos became the focus of his later series, Chewing Gum and Chocolate.
'If someone were to ask me what characterizes Japan’s postwar history, I’d reply, without hesitating, Americanisation. It was my experience that Americanisation started from the US military bases. It was as if America seeped through the gaps in the wire fences surrounding the bases and, in t.mes , soaked the entire country.'
Tomatsu’s work was relatively unknown to the Western world until the 21st century. Skin of the Nation, exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2006, marked only Tomatsu’s second exhibition outside of Japan, shocking an audience that was largely unfamiliar with his work.
Early prints of this image are rare. A later example is in the collects
ion of the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum.