The Healing Arts

The Restoring Power of Imagination

Cathy Malchiodi is an art therapist, visual artist, independent scholar, and author of 13 books on arts therapies, including The Art Therapy Sourcebook. See full bio

August 25, 2008, Creativity

Comments on "When Trauma Happens, People Draw: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Unforgettable Fire"

When Trauma Happens, People Draw: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Unforgettable Fire

By Cathy Malchiodi on August 25, 2008 in The Healing Arts

More than six decades have passed since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; this month marked the 63rd anniversary of the events that changed the history of modern war. And the A-Bomb survivors’ drawings and paintings continue to teach us about atrocity, empathy, and ultimately, humanity. Read More

Hiroshima

Submitted by Leslie Sussan on August 26, 2008 - 10:00am.

Hello, Cathi,

I stumbled on this blog entry and found it deeply moving. I have a personal connection to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. My dad was sent by the Army Air Corps in early 1946 with a film crew to take the only color film footage of the aftermath of the atomic bombings. He undertook to film extensively in the hospitals to record the shocking and unexpected (by him at least) illnesses and injuries there which differed so much from what he saw in other firebombed cities. After decades of suppression by the U.S. government, the films are now available in the National Archives. A Japanese advocacy group tracked down survivors whom he had filmed and organized a reunion with him shortly before my dad's death from cancer in 1985. I then lived in Hiroshima for a year with my daughter and came to know survivors (hibakusha). I am currently writing a family memoir about this story.

I saw the original Unforgettable Fire pictures at the peace museum (which also shows video from my dad's footage). The drawings are so vivid and personal. There is no way to confront them and maintain the usual artist/viewer distance.

I don't know if you have ever viewed Iri and Toshi Maruki's Hiroshima Panels. The Marukis were eyewitnesses but also extraordinary artists. I visited their studio outside Tokyo. Their spirit was amazing and I think it comes thru in their art --a gentleness and compassion, mixed with directness and honesty. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hiroshima_Panels and

My daughter has just started graduate school at Columbia University School of Social Work training as a clinical social worker. Her two main interests are aging and trauma recovery. I will send her the link to this blog, since it looks like she could learn a lot here.

I would love to have you and any of your readers visit my new blog on these issues (or link to it) and share the insights from therapy on how to heal the pain of survivors and their family and descendants. One big point in my book is that my father's trauma (which left him seeing flashes of Manhattan as it would be after an atomic bombing) had effects on the whole family.

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-lRWFzqY2dKoyMUdbZDXH.5vl4TGl1rg-?cq=1

Thank you!

Submitted by Cathy Malchiodi on August 26, 2008 - 3:52pm.

Dear Leslie,

Thank you so much for your kind words, your blog link, and for linking back to this story. When I wrote the story, I did not know if I would make an impression or if it would resonate. I am so glad you have shared your fascinating story-- and I am sending on your blog link to my students and colleagues in the trauma field, because what you have synthesized and written is so important for them to read.

Seeing those drawings and paintings was really a turning point for me and I am still surprised about how much they teach me, even to this day. Thank you again for sharing this wonderful story!

Cathy