Atomic Bomb Damage: Wristwatch Stopped at 11:02, August 9, 1945, Nagasaki

On August 9, 1945, at 11:02 a.m., an atomic bomb, code named “Fat Man, ” was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States in the final months of World War II. Sixteen years later, Shomei Tomatsu, one of the most important and influential photographers of postwar Japan, received a commission to produce images of atomic bomb victims in Nagasaki by the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs. Tomatsu photographed not only some of the victims but also such objects as a melted beer bottle and a watch that survived the destruction of the atomic bomb, which killed at least seventy thousand people on impact, most of whom were civilians. On display at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, the watch remains forever frozen at the exact moment “Fat Man” incinerated the city.