A student adds final touches to a painting at Hiroshima’s Motomachi High, part of an annual project preserving atomic bomb survivors’ stories for future generations. Photo: AFP
Trudging through the ruins of Hiroshima after the US atom bombing four days before in 1945, five-year-old Masaki Hironaka clutched his mother's hand and silently vowed to protect her.
It's one of many scenes from 80 years ago this August still etched in the octogenarian's memory - and now depicted vividly by Japanese teenagers on canvas.
