Oakland University professor Claude Baillargeon curated an exhibition in 2025 marking the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The exhibition is titled “Memorializing the Hibakusha Experience.” Focusing on the bombing survivors, it brings together a wide range of works including photographs taken shortly after the bombings, images of people living in the bombed areas after the war, photographs of trees that survived the atomic blast decades later, poems written by survivors and works by contemporary artists who continue to grapple with the bomb’s emotional impact today. The exhibition, done in partnership with the Peace Resource Center, is on display at Oakland University’s Art Gallery through Sunday, April 5.
Contributor Toko Shiiki talked with Baillergeon, an art historian, about the exhibition and visited Baillargeon’s class “Visual Representations and the Nuclear Experience.” The class emphasizes the historical realities of nuclear devastation through images and other surviving records. Baillargeon’s students also shared their reflections on the lessons they’ve taken from the class.