Photographs of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Manhattan Engineer District Antique Maps

Manhattan Engineer District / 1945 / Photographs of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Bookshelf 2a, 77161) Octavo. Original printed card covers, stapled, as issued. 101 plates (including 2 folded maps). Tiny spot stain to upper left corner of front cover. Touch of dust soiling to covers. Internally clean and overall very good. Visual Evidence of the Devastation at Hiroshima and Nagasaki A rare photographic work prepared by the Manhattan Engineer District under the direction of Major General Leslie R. Groves. The volume comprises 98 full-page photographic views of the bombings (including many aerial views, close-ups of ruins, buildings, bridges, flash burns on surfaces, all with text captions), two fold-out maps of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with bomb shockwaves displayed and a full-page diagram of an atomic explosion. The Special Manhattan Engineer District Investigating Group was dispatched to Japan in September 1945 to gather information on the physical devastation caused by the bombings. While the photographers are not identified here, the images were likely made by U.S. Navy photographers assigned to the Physical Damage Division of the United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS) during the fall of 1945. Powerful and grim visual testimony of the extreme destructive power of the atomic bombs used during World War II. A companion text volume also issued by the Manhattan Engineer District (not present here) which described the effects of the atomic bombs, summarizing all the best information then available on damage to structures, injuries to personnel, and the like. Rarity Quite rare in the market. Only 6 examples in RBH.