A Phoenix from the Ashes

Nearly eighty years after the atomic bomb, Hiroshima still carries its past. In the Genbaku Dome, in the Peace Memorial, in the stories of survivors like Kosei Mito, who returns daily to remind others what must never be repeated.

But just as present is the city’s quiet resilience. I saw it in big streets once turned to ash, in  school groups at memorials, cafés filled with young people. Some of the trees were thought to need a hundred years before growing back, yet they now offer shade along wide, sunlit roads.

I was drawn to that contrast. The stillness of remembrance alongside the movement of daily life. Hiroshima doesn’t try to escape its history. It folds it into the present, gently but unmistakably.

This series is about that balance. About how a place shaped by tragedy can become a place that chooses care for its history, its people, and its future. Hiroshima doesn’t forget. It moves forward with intention.

This work was featured in National Geographic Traveler Magazine, May 2025.