| Long before I started photographing, I was | | | | we watched what followed. Mr. Matsunaga, his |
| moved by images that captured my attention and | | | | calm voice silenced, collapsed into tears by my |
| enlightened my awareness of the world at large. | | | | side. The survivors in front of us sat still as |
| On many a rainy afternoon, lost as a child in the | | | | sculptures. Frozen in time, they stared ahead, |
| photo essays of Life Magazine and National | | | | some gasping as they saw themselves on the |
| Geographic, I entered the lives of people around | | | | silver screen, stumbling through the rubble of |
| the world, pondering the contrasts between my | | | | charred corpses. Dazed and burned, they were |
| life and theirs. | | | | calling for families they would never find. Quiet |
| In my teenage years, there was an abundance of | | | | sobs filled the room while we witnessed the |
| images that sank into my heart, cut short my | | | | re-run of a nuclear holocaust. |
| innocence. Images from the March on Selma, the | | | | When it was over, no one moved. No one turned |
| assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin | | | | on a light. We sat there in the dark amidst sobs |
| Luther King, from the Vietnam War and the Kent | | | | and tears, trying to recover. When the lights |
| State shootings, all showing a level of violence and | | | | came on and I was introduced, I stood there |
| intolerance I was not prepared for. I was | | | | before them and started to cry, and it was only |
| impressionable then, as I am now--moved by | | | | at their urging I could carry on. |
| what I see, changed by what I experience, led to | | | | I spoke slowly about the slides we were going to |
| action by what I believe. | | | | see, with Mr. Matsunaga at my side translating my |
| Most of us, at some point, have a desire to make | | | | words and my hopes in whatever way he could. |
| a difference in the world. We want our lives to | | | | Then the lights went out again, the music started, |
| matter, our words to be of use. And for those of | | | | and images of millions of people working for |
| us who traffic in images, we want them to speak | | | | peace began to dissolve into each other. |
| eloquently of that which matters to us, to be the | | | | There were no words being spoken. Just the |
| metaphor for who we are, what we believe in | | | | pictures and voices from the International |
| and stand for. | | | | Children's Choir singing Let There Be Peace on |
| Dorothea Lange was invested in creating images | | | | Earth. These images of colorful, festive, |
| that would alter the public's attitude about migrant | | | | life-affirming demonstrations had more power that |
| workers. Walker Evans was committed to making | | | | day than any I remember. Symbols of a solemn |
| photographs of tenant farmers that would inform | | | | commitment to peace washed over and |
| and inspire people to action. Lewis Hine, in his | | | | comforted us. They delivered us, if only |
| crusade against child labor, created images that | | | | momentarily, from the fear of such a holocaust |
| did what dry statistics and lengthy speeches | | | | happening again, for how could these millions not |
| never could do. Robert Capa, who despised war, | | | | make a difference, their passion so clearly |
| photographed five of them in an attempt to | | | | exposed and revealed? |
| record its horror and monstrous stupidity, | | | | After the slideshow, the survivors came to the |
| believing that "the truth is the best picture, the | | | | microphone and one by one spoke of the |
| best propaganda." | | | | profound impact these photographs had on them. |
| Having seen their work and read of the national | | | | "I did not know so many people cared about |
| response and reforms their pictures generated, I | | | | what happened to us...we thought we were all |
| understood the power that photographs could | | | | alone in our struggle to prevent this from |
| have on a level beyond the personal, saw how | | | | happening again...seeing all those Americans caring |
| images could help shape a national consciousness, | | | | about peace encourages me in my struggle...how |
| create an awareness that could lead to | | | | can we fail if there are so many of us?" |
| enlightenment, action, change. | | | | I had been so immersed in the peace movement |
| Buoyed with this knowledge and faith, in the | | | | during those years of nuclear frenzy that, until |
| mid-80s, during the massive global buildup of | | | | that day, it had not occurred to me that others |
| nuclear weapons, I embarked on a peace | | | | weren't aware of it, had no idea of its magnitude. |
| pilgrimage around the world. Armed with 200 rolls | | | | These survivors did not even know there was a |
| of film and a slideshow of the U.S. peace | | | | U.S. peace movement doggedly resisting the |
| movement, I was determined to use my | | | | production and proliferation of nuclear warfare. |
| photographs in the service of the people, to share | | | | And it made a difference to them to find out, to |
| with as many folks as I could these images of | | | | see all those pictures, to witness others in |
| activism, of commitment to harmony and a safe | | | | solidarity with them, working as hard as they |
| home for all the world's children. | | | | were for the same cause. |
| In order to create a culture of peace, a culture | | | | One photograph could not have done it, but those |
| that reflects our reverence for life, we need | | | | eighty images, one after another, blended with |
| stories and symbols that heal and guide, that help | | | | that music--it had an impact, told a story that |
| us remember we are part of a whole. It's hard, in | | | | bolstered their courage, honored their experience. |
| a society bent on power and profit, to remember | | | | What had happened to them did matter after all, |
| what life is really for. Harder still to connect with | | | | and these photographs were evidence of how |
| one another when most things serve to keep us | | | | much. |
| separate. But stories help. Pictures help. And | | | | Nothing in the world could heal their physical |
| every contact with a lover of life brings us one | | | | wounds, their irradiated organs, their burned and |
| step closer to loving our own. | | | | disfigured faces and limbs, but a healing occurred |
| My journey was a search for those images and | | | | in their spirits that day, passed on through these |
| stories, an attempt to discover and reveal our | | | | portraits of comrades in action. |
| oneness around the globe. | | | | We can and do inspire each other in this life, and if |
| In Japan, I was invited to speak to a group of | | | | a photograph does nothing more than inspire one |
| A-bomb survivors at the Nagasaki Association for | | | | person to feel that, somehow, his life mattered, |
| the Promotion of Peace and to present my | | | | her pain served a purpose, then that one |
| slideshow, Focus on Peace. Before that we would | | | | photograph ought not go unseen. We can never |
| watch the premiere of a Japanese film, one which | | | | know the reach of our work, never know when |
| included recently released American military | | | | we share a photograph to whom and why it |
| footage of the Nagasaki bombing. | | | | might make a difference, never know how our |
| I sat in the back of the room with Mr. Matsunaga, | | | | small images contribute to the global picture as a |
| director of the organization, who served as my | | | | whole. |
| translator. The lights went out and the film began | | | | But what we do know, from our own experience |
| with a slow pan of the Nagasaki Peace Park. | | | | and the experience of history, is that photographs |
| Paper cranes and colorful flowers filled the frame | | | | can change the course of the things, turn one's |
| until a jump cut took us to the cockpit of a U.S. | | | | head, alter one's thoughts, enlighten one's |
| plane on August 9, 1945. | | | | darkness. To shoot with that awareness, to know |
| We watched the bomb drop. Watched the deadly | | | | our images, made of light, can contribute |
| cloud devour the city. And then from the ground | | | | light--that is the true joy of photography. |