A photograph of a young girl taken on August 9,1945 three days after the atomic bombing is seen displayed at the entrance of the main building of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Yukiko Fujii, who was 10 years old at the time and later died at the age of 42 suffered severe burns to her right arm. Her expression conveys the deep pain and sorrow of the moment. The Japanese government has recommended for UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” program a collection of photographs and film documenting the devastation following the atomic bombing. Among them is the image of Yukiko Fujii taken by the late Yukio Kunihira, a photographer for the Mainichi Newspapers.
In 2017, Yukiko’s identity was confirmed when her son, Tetsunobu Fujii, then 63 and living in Tokyo recognized the image on the newspaper’s website and came forward. The photograph has since become one of the core exhibits in the museum’s renewed permanent display unveiled in 2019.