This is the saddest story of a boy who carried his baby brother’s body hundreds of miles to a crematorium
This is the saddest story of a boy who carried his little brother’s body hundreds of miles to a crematorium. One of the saddest photos was taken after the ɑtomic ɑttack on Nagasaki in Japan in 1945.

The story behind it is reminiscent of the 1988 Japanese anime drama Firefly Dungeon. The photo shows a Japanese boy carrying the body of his younger brother who passed away in the bombing.

The crematorium was several hundred kilometers outside the city, and this boy had walked for days to get there. Photographer Joe O’Donnell, who captured the moment, wrote in his diary:

“I saw a boy about ten years old. She was carrying a child on her back. In those days in Japan, we often saw children playing with their little brothers or sisters on their backs, but this boy was clearly different.

And we could see that he came to this place for a serious reason. He didn’t even have shoes. His face was serious, but without too much emotion, and a small head could be seen behind his back…tilted back as if the child was just sleeping.

The boy stood motionless for five or ten minutes, then the white-masked men approached him and quietly began to untie the rope that held his brother. Then I saw that the child was already dead. The boy stood still, not moving, observing the process of priming. He bit his lower lip so hard that it flashed from his mouth. Then the guard asked him about the body and said, “Give me the burden you are carrying on your back.”

The boy just answered him quietly: “He is not difficult, he is my brother.” Then he prayed, took one last look at his brother, and without a word turned and left forever!”
Joe O’Donnell was on official assignment to document the damage caused in Japan by air raids and ɑtomic b0mbs for the US military.

He spent seven months in 1945 on an official trip to Western Japan and monitored the destruction, counting the living, the d.ead, the homeless and the orphaned. The picture he took is part of the events…

In the photo, you can see how a boy is standing upright, and he is carrying his younger brother on his back.

The boy’s attitude shows a military influence, and his attempt to appear brave at the moment when his heart is breaking is the embodiment of the spirit of a defeated nation.