John W. Dower

On August 6, 1946, the United States dropped the first ever nuclear weapon on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, another nuclear bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians were killed in the explosions and countless others were disfigured, maimed and poisoned by the effects of the bomb’s radiation. Was the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary? Lifting the Fog: The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a provocative investigation into the motives that led to the building of the first atomic bomb and the decision to drop the bomb three months after the war ended with Germany. Using dramatizations based on the diaries and notebooks of the major participants in this momentous decision, including President Truman, Secretary of War Stimson and nuclear physicist Leo Szilard, the documentary presents the issues as they appeared to American statesmen.

Japanese husband and wife muralists Iri and Toshi Maruki are known for their depictions of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Their collaborative relationship is unique: one paints a painfully detailed vision of the victims of the atomic blast; the other conceals the carefully delineated brush strokes with a grey-black ink “wash.” The first artist restates the specifics of the image; the second re-conceals. Through the repetition of this process, the work emerges.