was a Japanese photographer and journalist, author of the book ''Postwar Japan that was not photographed: From Hiroshima to Fukushima''.

Early life and military service

Born in Kudamatsu-shi Yamaguchi Prefecture as the youngest of four brothers, his father was the head of a fisherman's union. Drafted in the spring of 1944 he worked in logistics, delivering munitions to troops by horseback in the 10th East Hiroshima Battalion. He was discharged after incurring a bone fracture from the kick of a horse during training. While under treatment his unit was torpedoed off the coast of Okinawa. He was re-drafted in spring 1945 and ordered to charge at American tanks with depth charges in preparation for

Operation Downfall Operation Downfall was the proposed Allied plan for the invasion of the Japanese home islands near the end of World War II. The planned operation was canceled when Japan surrendered following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, th ...

. He would see the end of the war in a foxhole off the coast of

Kagoshima Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,599,779 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 9,187 km2 (3,547 sq mi). Kagoshima Prefecture borders Kumamoto P ...

Career

After the war Fukushima would work repairing wristwatches and developing photographs, and later as a district welfare officer. Documenting the victims of the

Hiroshima bombing The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the on ...

over 10 years, he published the Japan Photo Critics Association award-winning photobook "Pika Don: The Memories of Atomic Bombing Victims." Badly affected by the suffering and poverty he witnessed, he started to have auditory and visual hallucinations and was diagnosed with

psychasthenia Psychasthenia was a psychological disorder characterized by phobias, obsessions, compulsions, or excessive anxiety. The term is no longer in psychiatric diagnostic use, although it still forms one of the ten clinical subscales of the popular self-r ...

. He would move to Tokyo in 1961 with his 3 children to work as a professional photographer after separating from his wife. His work would cover post-war issues such as the Sanrizuka Struggle, environmental pollution, Zainichi Korean slums, and military rearmament as well as Middle Eastern and Soviet politics. His work would span across 17 exhibitions and 12 photobooks. In 1961, he began a year-long report on the Defense Ministry's arms manufacturing. After being granted access to a factory he covertly photographed crucial components. He was later stabbed and had his nose broken, requiring 10 stitches. One month later his house was set on fire, his daughter safely retrieving his negatives. In 1982 he would move to an uninhabited island in the

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka ...

due to his convictions of self-sufficiency. He would return to Yanai-shi, Yamaguchi prefecture after being diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1987. He would resume photography following the 2011

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...

Film

The documentary film ''Nippon no Uso'' (''Japan Lies—The Photojournalism of Kikujiro Fukushima, Age 90'') provides insight into the life of Fukushima. Based on Fukushima's 250,000 photos and his own experiences, the film shows the little-known side of Japan's postwar path. Directed by Saburo Hasegawa and produced by Documentary Japan, the film was released on August 4, 2012, in Tokyo.

Death

He died after a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

on September 24, 2015.

Collection of Works

Before his death, the rights to all of his works were transferred to Kyodo News Images in Tokyo in accordance with Kikujiro's wishes. Over 100,000 negatives have been stored and continue to be digitized.The works are available online.

References

External links

* http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/02/photographing-hiroshima-fukushima-and-everything-in-between/?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Aw Japanese photographers 1921 births Anti-nuclear movement Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster 2015 deaths {{Japan-photographer-stub