“I sat at the Nagasaki Peace Park for hours trying to differentiate between tourists and locals who were visiting to pray for a loved one-they often wore juzu, or prayer beads,” says Sakaguchi, who immigrated to the U.S. Then, in 2017, the Brooklyn-based artist decided to visit Japan herself in hopes of meeting someone who knew a hibakusha-the Japanese word for those affected by the August 1945 attacks. When photographer Haruka Sakaguchi first tried to connect with survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, her cold calls and emails went unanswered.
