Sanno Shrine after Atomic Attack on Nagasaki

Image size: 1600 x 1312 pixel. 615 KB
Date: Monday, 24 September 1945
Place: Nagasaki, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan
Photographer: Corporal Lynn P. Walker, Jr.

 Statues of Amida Buddha and Jizo in Sanno Shrine after atomic attack on Nagasaki. One-legged Torii (short for bird place or expression "pass through and enter") of Sanno Shrine at extreme right. This Shinto Shrine nestles among towering camphor trees at the edge of the former Urakami kaido, the narrow road used by Edo-Period travelers entering Nagasaki from the north through the Urakami Valley. The shrine was founded in 1652 and named after Sanno (Hie) Shinto Shrine near Kyoto because of the similarity in the terrain and the fact that both shrines were located in a place called "Sakamoto." The two enormous camphor trees flanking the entrance to Sanno Shinto Shrine were probably planted at the time of the shrine's foundation. Located about 800 meters from the hypocenter, Sanno Shinto Shrine was completely flattened, except for one of its Torii Gates on the far side of the hypocenter and the half-flattened Torii in the extreme right of the photo. While the neighborhood and the shrine were rebuilt after the war, the one-legged Torii was left as a reminder of the power of the explosion as a memorial to the 74,000 Nagasaki residents who were killed immediately or by the lingering effects of radiation between August 9 - December 31, 1945. The camphor trees were originally thought to be killed in the blast, but they survived to bloom again and were designated a national landmark on February 15, 1969. 

Source:

http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/DVIC_View/Display_CD.cfm?StartRow=1&MaxRows=50&CD=War%20And%20Conflict%20CD

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii1339

US Private Examines the Siegestor

Image size: 1322 x 1600 pixel. 625 KB
Date: Wednesday, 13 June 1945
Place: Maxvorstadt, Münich, Germany
Photographer: Unknown

Private First Class Lawrence W. Bartlett (1924-1985), Niagara Falls, New York, examines the four fallen lions which once adorned the top of the Siegestor, built by King Ludwig I, in 1844-1852 in tribute to the Bavarian Army. The Siegestor (Victory Gate) in Münich, is a three-arched triumphal arch crowned with a statue of Bavaria with a lion-quadriga, similar in style to the Arch of Constantine in Rome, the Marble Arch in London, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and the Brandenburger Tor in Berlin. It is located between the university and the Ohmstraße, on the intersection of the Leopoldstraße and the Ludwigstraße. Therefore it divides the two Münich districts of Maxvorstadt and Schwabing. The gate was commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria, designed by Friedrich von Gärtner and completed in 1852. The quadriga was created by Martin Wagner. The gate was originally dedicated to the glory of the Bavarian army (dem bayerischen Heere zum Ruhme). Today the Siegestor is a monument and reminder to peace. After sustaining heavy damage in World War II, the gate was - similar to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche in Berlin - reconstructed and restored only partially. The inscription on the back side is by Wilhelm Hausenstein and reads "Dem Sieg geweiht, vom Krieg zerstört, zum Frieden mahnend", which translates as "Dedicated to victory, destroyed by war, reminding of peace". In the last couple of years, the statues that remained were meticulously cleaned and restored. 

Source:

NARA (National Archives) 540136

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Private_First_Class_Lawrence_Bartlett,_Niagara_Falls,_New_York,_examines_the_four_fallen_lions_which_once_adorned_the..._-_NARA_-_540136.tif

Gute (The Goodness) Overlooks Ruins of Dresden

Image size: 1219 x 1600 pixel. 758 KB
Date: Tuesday, 1 January 1946
Place: Dresden, Sachsen, Germany
Photographer: Richard Peter

August Schreitmüller's (1871-1958) sandstone statue "Gute" (The Goodness) overlooks the ruins of Dresden in 1946. In this photo taken by Richard Peter (May 10, 1895 - October 3, 1977) for his book "Dresden-eine Kamera klagt an" (Dresden - A Camera Accuses) published in East Germany in 1949, he stood on the viewing platform of the Dresdener Rathaus (Dresden City Hall) to photograph the ruins of the city south towards the Elbe valley and the district of Sächsische Schweiz (Saxon Switzerland). A veteran of World War I, he worked as a photographer for socialist publications in the twenties and thirties. The Nazis refused to grant him a press pass in 1933 and he worked in Dresden until the war, when he was drafted to work on a flak battery in Vienna. Over the period of February 13-15, 1945, the Allies dropped 3,900 tons of explosives on Dresden's city center in four raids by the Royal Air Force at night and the American 8th Air Force by day. The sustained bombing combined with weather conditions to cause a firestorm of superheated winds at 1500 Celcius (2700 Fahrenheit). Packed with refugees from the East, some 850,000 people or more were in and around the city; hotly disputed casualties are estimated to be at least 25,000. 13 square miles (34 square kilometers) were destroyed; 90% of the city center was burned out. Most casualties were killed not by burning, but by the lack of oxygen as the fire consumed breathable air. Peter returned to Dresden to find his studio destroyed; borrowing camera equipment, he documented the destruction and called for rebuilding. The book also contains graphic photos of the firestorm's victims, many of whom were uncovered in 1946. He was cast out of the East German Communist Party the same year the book was published for criticizing corruption. Photographer Walter Hahn also photographed this same location, choosing a landscape with a wider view instead. Dresden still had scars from the bombing in 1959; some buildings, notably the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) were reconstructed only after reunification. Bodies continued to be found in Dresden through 1990!

Source:

Dresden Stadtarchiv 

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii0034