from the demolished Masuda Building

Prior to World War II, Hiroshima was on track to become a major metropolis, fueled by its booming shipbuilding industry. One of its many townships, Kure, separated by a curtain of low mountains, participated in that boom, harboring the second largest naval dockyard in Japan. After the war, Kure benefited from Hiroshima’s complete rebuilding, and it became one of the country’s historic “core cities.” Despite Japan’s overall demoralization after the war, the mood in Kure remained optimistic. This rubble is from a small building in which my grandmother lived and operated a small shop selling high-quality cosmetics and skincare products. My father worked for the maritime division of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. My mother took enormous pleasure and pride in cultivating her own business, which my father admired and took pleasure in by extension. When I grew up in Kure in the ‘70s and ‘80s it had a certain flair, dotted with independent book and record shops. When the name Hiroshima is evoked, it brings to mind for Americans and others images of despair. For us, at that time, the sense was of an ever-brighter future to come. In the past few decades, Japan has suffered the stresses faced by much of the world, including wage stagnation, inflation and economic disparities. Several years ago, the small multi-use building in Kure was demolished. It has not yet been replaced.

Mika Yoshida in Kure, Hiroshima