NHK-Japan Presents the Interactive A-bomb Drawings 8K Viewer

NHK and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum have recorded roughly 4,200 A-bomb Drawings by Survivors held in the museum’s collection in 8K and above ultra-high definition images. Art works include those no longer fit for display.

Each drawing is linked by time and place to a 3D map of Hiroshima. NHK developed the system, which also makes it possible to select drawings on a tablet, as well as display explanations in English and Japanese, and enlarge the drawings for ultra-high definition viewing of the details.

The Special Exhibition will take place from August 1-26 at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The exhibition will comprise the 8K screening of Stories Told by A-bomb Drawings by Survivors – Hiroshima (10 mins version / English and Japanese). Visitors can also view and use the 8K Archive Display System “Interactive A-bomb Drawings 8K Viewer”.

The first atom bomb used in warfare was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. People who lived through the calamity drew and painted A-bomb artworks to pass their experiences on to future generations. About 4,200 of these pictures are watercolor and oil paintings and drawings that are currently held in the collection of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. They are carefully preserved, however, many of them are aging over time and deteriorated, so only a few can be displayed.

Each and every drawing vividly conveys the shocking events of that time and place, the colors, sounds and smells, and also the mental state of the people caught up in it all, serving as an important testament of the bombing as it was experienced by the five senses. An ultra- high definition 8K Super Hi-Vision camera was used to capture the very finest details of each drawing and the images have been organized in chronological order to reproduce the events of the first three days from the blast.