Below, Hiroki photographed two camphor trees that guard the entrance to Nakasaki’s Sanno Shinto Shrine. Heat and debris from the blast stripped the tree bare and split the trunks in two. Although considered dead at the time, the tree’s scorched branches produced new buds. Today the trees stand as living, natural monuments to the bombing.

Hiroki also wanted to show the resilience of survivors. Shoso Kawamoto (below) was orphaned at 11 when the Hiroshima bomb killed his parents. Like other hibakusha (bomb survivors), he suffered discrimination from other Japanese citizens and their unfounded fears. At 20 he fell in love with a woman, but her father forbade their marriage, saying that their children could be deformed from radiation. Now 86, Kawamoto