Multiple Ground Zeros

In this collage, Mirikitani juxtaposes Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Mercy, with the burning Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. Below, a photograph of the Dome taken from another angle merges seamlessly into Mirikitani’s drawn river, where stick figures line the shore, some leaping into the water. Although he was not in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb fell on August 6, 1945, its devastation profoundly affected him. Mirikitani repeatedly depicted the Dome alongside Kannon in his collage works, reflecting the enduring impact of the bombing on his life and art. 

Yet this collage is exceptional. Unlike his other works, in which he used photocopies of Kannon images—presumably taken from magazine illustrations, postcards, or calendars found in New York’s Chinatown—the deity here is drawn by Mirikitani himself, underscoring the personal and haunting nature of his engagement with this memory. This connection is further deepened by a photograph of the artist inserted into the composition, placing him within the site of destruction.

Mirikitani produced a large body of work addressing the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, frequently returning to a set of recurring motifs and compositions: the blazing Atomic Bomb Dome, stick figures of people seeking rescue, and collaged images of Kannon offering salvation. His depictions of the World Trade Center incorporate many of these same visual elements, suggesting that the two events were connected in his memory. 

This piece, however, is a rare instance in which the two themes physically converge within a single image. Beside the burning Atomic Bomb Dome appears a black-and-white image of the World Trade Center. The upper section features a striking collage that includes a photograph of women in hijabs and a portrait of Osama Bin Laden. The upper right corner has a drawing of airplanes—evoking the 9/11 attacks—yet labeled USA, crashing into the Atomic Bomb Dome. 

By fusing images of Hiroshima, 9/11, and the Iraq War, Mirikitani invites us to consider the interconnectedness of global atrocities—collapsing boundaries of time, place, and politics to confront the recurring cycles of violence, racism, and war, without reducing them to a clear-cut picture of enemy and foe.  

This collage centers on the Battle of Midway (June 1942), a pivotal World War II confrontation in which the U.S. Navy dealt Japan a crushing defeat, sinking four aircraft carriers and shifting the balance of power in the Pacific. Mirikitani combines painted and photographic elements to evoke Japan’s imperial and wartime past. Fiery red brushstrokes engulf a warship, transforming historical imagery into a meditation on destruction and remembrance. The central color photograph shows Shigemitsu Mamoru (1887–1975), who signed the Instruments of Surrender on behalf of the Japanese Government aboard U.S.S. Missouri on September 2, 1945. Beside it is a portrait of Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku (1884–1943), who died when his aircraft was shot down by U.S. forces over the Solomon Islands. In the upper right, Emperor Hirohito appears dressed in court regalia at his 1926 coronation. Through this layering of imperial portraiture, naval symbolism, and painterly violence, Mirikitani reconstructs fragments of national history to reveal the entanglement of war, empire, and personal memory.