Cahén chose to portray realistically proportioned figures free of caricature, rendered in black line. The cover shows the vulnerable: an elderly man, hat respectfully held in his hand, and foraging women and children dwarfed by a wasted landscape. The menacing, abstract shape of twisted wreckage in the foreground not only indicates the force of the blast but also nods to the tradition of Japanese woodcut design.

Hiroshima was a major commission, including an additional fourteen spot-illustrations of survivors, wreckage, and rebuilding efforts, and four decorated capital letters. When American literary agents saw Cahén’s work, they wrote him to say that of all the illustration done for the eight hundred publications of Hiroshima worldwide, Cahén’s were their favourite.

This Spotlight is excerpted from Oscar Cahén: Life & Work by Jaleen Grove.