Nobi Nagasawa Joins Japanese Artists to Commemorate 80th Anniversary of Atomic Bombings

The work of Nobuho (Nobi) Nagasawa, a professor in Stony Brook University's Department of Art, is featured by the New Jersey City University (NJCU) Visual Arts Galleryas part of an exhibition presenting the ramifications of atomic bombs from multiple perspectives. The exhibition, titled Atomic Cowboy: The Daze After,commemorates the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The atomic bomb known as "Dirty Harry" was just one of 97 nuclear tests that took place in Nevada between 1951 and 1958. At the same time, many "cowboy westerns" were being filmed in the nearby deserts of the American Southwest. Years later, concerns arose about the unusually high rate of cancer deaths among people in the Hollywood film industry and their possible connection to these 1950s atomic bomb tests.

Nagasawa's interest in radiation and its impact on humans began in 1984, during her large-scale earthwork firing project in central Japan.

"After seven days of continuous firing, a sudden localized rainfall occurred only at the site, triggered by rising air currents that seeded the clouds - an event reminiscent of the 'Black Rain' - the radioactive rainfall that followed the atomic bombing of Hiroshima," she said. "This experience sparked my curiosity about the broader consequences of nuclear events, particularly the environmental and human effects of the mushroom cloud."

In 1987, after moving to Los Angeles, she encountered a book titled Why John Wayne Died, written in 1982 by Japanese writer Takashi Hirose.

"His book was never published in the US due to its controversial subject matter, as it explored potential links between the deaths of actors and actresses and their exposure to atomic bomb testing sites," said Nagasawa. "The Atomic Energy Commission refused to acknowledge any of this, as did the Hollywood community. Reading it deepened my inquiry, connecting historical atomic events to cultural and cinematic narratives, and shaping my ongoing exploration of how art can reveal these hidden intersections between human life, the environment, and history."

Originally shown at the Daniel Saxon Gallery in Los Angeles in 1992, Atomic Cowboy: The Daze After, drew attention to an unusually high number of cancer deaths among the cast and crew members of The Conqueror, filmed at the nuclear test site. Now, to commemorate the 80thanniversary of the atomic bomb, Nagasawa's work is displayed simultaneously with Take it home, for (__) shall not repeat the error,curated by Hiroshima-raised Souya Handa.

Featuring the work of four artists from around the world, Handa's exhibition runs through November 19 and connects the histories of the Manhattan Project with the subsequent nuclear weapons development in the U.S. It constructs a linear narrative from the uranium mines used in the Hiroshima bomb, to post-WW2 nuclear tests, and even Fukushima. Presented together, the two exhibitions aim to raise awareness on the dangers of nuclear weapons and the ongoing threat of nuclear wars.

Nagasawa's installation centers around a piece called Nuke-Cuisine - 835 "Cloud of Mushroom Soup" cans, each one representing an announced nuclear test conducted in America from 1945 to 1990. NJCU displayed 91 of these soup cans alongside a comprehensive wall installation featuring atomic bomb data, portraits of radiation-exposed actors, and related documentation.

Thirty-three years after its original showing, The Atomic Cowboy: The Daze After strips away Hollywood's manufactured veneer to expose the devastating human cost buried beneath the Western genre's celebration of masculine heroism. Nagasawa's work shines a light on how the entertainment industry's cowboy mythology masked a public health catastrophe, reflecting a broader artistic vision that connects environmental destruction with human vulnerability across political and cultural landscapes.

Over the past three decades, Nagasawa said her perspective has evolved from examining a specific historical tragedy to confronting its ongoing relevance amid today's global crises.

"When I first exhibited The Atomic Cowboy: The Daze Afterin 1992, I sought to reveal how myths of progress, heroism, and entertainment concealed the violence of both nuclear testing and environmental destruction," she said. "Today, the work resonates with contemporary realities - ongoing wars, nuclear threats, mass displacement, and accelerating ecological collapse. The radioactive dust of the 1950s has become a metaphor for the pollutants, carbon emissions, and moral debris we continue to generate. The installation now serves as a mirror, reflecting how cycles of denial and exploitation persist, and how the wounds of the earth remain inseparable from those of humanity."

The Atomic Cowboy: The Daze Afteraddresses an array of Nagasawa's ecological concerns by juxtaposing images of human frailty with the glitz and machismo of Hollywood's "cowboy" genre. Nagasawa said the exhibition asks viewers to not only remember the past, but to consider how we live amid the lingering residues - chemical, emotional, and moral - of our collective choices.

"When I first began working on The Atomic Cowboyin 1991, during the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, I was warned that, because I am Japanese, people might associate the work with Pearl Harbor or impose a political reading on it," said Nagasawa. "But that was never my concern. I don't approach this from a national perspective - I see myself as a citizen of the planet. The story I'm addressing transcends national identity. Nuclear power recognizes no borders, no ideologies, and no hierarchies of fame or privilege. It is an equal-opportunity destroyer."

The Conqueror, an epic historical drama, was filmed in 1954 near St. George, Utah, downwind from the nuclear testing range at Yucca Flat, Nevada. The film, based on the conquests of the 13th-century warrior Genghis Khan, starred Hollywood legend John Wayne alongside Susan Hayward and Agnes Moorehead. The script called for some of the dustiest, grimiest battle scenes ever filmed. Of the original 220 cast and crew members of The Conqueror, 150 were later contacted and 91 - more than 40 percent - were found to have developed cancer. By 1980, more than half of those, including Wayne, Hayward, Moorehead, and producer-director Dick Powell, had died from the disease.

The victims included not only film stars and crew, but also three hundred members of the Native American Shivwits Band of Paiutes who were used as extras, as well as the residents of St. George, Utah - despite being 145 miles from ground zero. In the end, Nagasawa hopes to leave viewers with a heightened awareness of the interconnectedness between human conflict and ecological devastation.

"The work is not simply about the past but about the continuum of destruction - how war, industry, and consumption have shaped both culture and climate," she said. "I want the audience to sense the fragility of the earth as a living organism, to feel the haunting continuity between nuclear fallout and today's environmental collapse. Ultimately, I hope The Atomic Cowboy: The Daze After, invites reflection on accountability and empathy, to recognize that the forces driving violence against the planet are the same that perpetuate violence among people, and that healing one requires acknowledging the other."

- Robert Emproto