Commander Standish Backus served in the Navy during World War II. He served in active duty and as an artist covering naval operations. He was assigned to report the real happenings that the photographer and writers could not explain. "Garden at Hiroshima, Autumn" shows Hiroshima about a month after the bombings when crews returned to work.
The landscape is barren except for some debris. All vegetation, anything that grows, has been completely destroyed. The strongest trees are now disfigured, dead and scattered across the landscape. There are no signs that this was previously a garden in full bloom. In the foreground, just the very foundations of the buildings are still there. Miscellaneous and mangled pieces of what used to be scatter the ground. Therefore, the scene is still. All former life in the area has been wiped out of existence leaving behind an uninhabited land deeply scarred by the war. The sun's light and hope have been darkened over by the complete devastation the atomic bomb left in its wake.
A woman and child have returned to the remnants of their home a month after the bombing. They are standing in the empty place of where their home and the garden once stood taking in the damage. The mother is looking down depressed at the site while the child is too young to understand. However, that child will have to live with the direct consequences of the bombing throughout his life even though he committed no wrong. No other former inhabitants have come back and mostly stayed away. When the naval investigation teams returned to Hiroshima, they found a scene of isolation and destruction that evoked a haunted and eerie feeling.
The reality of the bombing is portrayed in Backus' "Garden at Hiroshima, Autumn" better than any other form. Written word and short glimpses through a photograph cannot begin to explain the impact of the bombing. After the bombing, Hiroshima was engulfed by destruction, isolation and hopelessness.
