Bodies and Structures 2.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian HistoryMain MenuGet to Know the SiteGuided TourShow Me HowA click-by-click guide to using this siteModulesRead the seventeen spatial stories that make up Bodies and Structures 2.0Tag MapExplore conceptsComplete Grid VisualizationDiscover connectionsGeotagged MapFind materials by geographic locationLensesCreate your own visualizationsWhat We LearnedLearn how multivocal spatial history changed how we approach our researchAboutFind information about contributors and advisory board members, citing this site, image permissions and licensing, and site documentationTroubleshootingA guide to known issuesAcknowledgmentsThank youDavid Ambaras1337d6b66b25164b57abc529e56445d238145277Kate McDonald306bb1134bc892ab2ada669bed7aecb100ef7d5fThis project was made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Ishikawa ground level photograph, IV
12020-04-30T18:05:48-04:00Kate McDonald306bb1134bc892ab2ada669bed7aecb100ef7d5f352The iconic oya-ko (mother and child) imageplain2020-09-15T14:27:56-04:001945Tokyo daikūshū no zenkiroku.Ishikawa KoyoDavid FedmanDF-0018Kandra Polatis4decfc04157f6073c75cc53dcab9d25e87c02133
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12020-04-30T18:05:22-04:00Documenting Destruction4Ishikawa's photographs of the consequences of the firebombings (graphic imagery).gallery2021-05-05T08:04:58-04:0003/1945David FedmanIshikawa, KōyōUnited States Army Air Force
To Ishikawa, it was only with sunrise that the magnitude of destruction came to light. Only then could he confirm that he was actually “in the land of the living.” Thus assured, Ishikawa began to photograph the aftermath, albeit reluctantly. The images he captured that morning are perhaps the best visual testament we have to the bodily scale of suffering. Charred corpses piled along thoroughfares and floating in canals; carbonized women and children; stunned survivors searching for family; still smoldering air raid shelters filled with asphyxiated bodies. When read against the abstract aerial photographs produced and disseminated by the USAAF to communicate, if not celebrate, the achievements of the raid, these images remind us of the humanity that lay below. They show us the corporeal consequences of bombardment.
