|
Completion of the "Images of the A-bomb Holocaust": Experiences of the Atomic Bomb Victims |
Since 2007, the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation and the Hiroshima Prefectural
Motomachi High School Creative Expression Course have brought student volunteers
and A-bomb eyewitnesses together to create the "Images of the A-bomb
Holocaust", a graphic record of the experiences of the Foundation's
official hibakusha.
Since 2010 five hibakusha and eleven students have worked in five groups to produce the drawings.
They presented eleven completed drawings to the Foundation.
On 4 July, the five hibakusha – Shinichiro Arai, Sadae Kasaoka, Kenji Kitagawa, Masahiro Kunishige and
Takashi Teramoto – together with the eleven Creative Expression Course
students attended the completion ceremony at the Motomachi High School
Gallery.
"This opportunity to work together with the hibakusha has changed the way I understand atomic weapons. I see now how utterly
terrifying and regrettable it is that something as horrible as this should
have ever happened", said one student. "Thinking about the survivors
and all those who died in agony because of the A-bomb I feel nuclear weapons
are something we should never maintain or use again", said another.
Yet another student explained, "Not only a sense of straightforward
fear but also a sense of duty to never to let such a tragedy happen again
welled up in me". "I want to work for peace", said another
student, "so that the world will be filled with expressions of happiness".
"I strongly feel our generation must continue to spread the message
that war is wrong," was the opinion of another student.
These drawings given to the Foundation were presented by the hibakusha in order to help us better understand the horror of the atomic experience.
They are also given to us so that we can understand the true suffering
that nuclear weapons cause while teaching us what Hiroshima was like at
that time. |
 |
"Little sisters gone ... I wish they were still alive."
Manami Nakasuka (Motomachi High School, Standard Stream Creative Expression
Course, 2nd Year),
Shinichiro Arai (Eyewitness to the Atomic bomb) |
"Departed souls under a row of pine trees on the Sanyo Highway"
Natsu Nishiie (Motomachi High School, Standard Stream Creative Expression
Course, 2nd Year),
Shinichiro Arai (Eyewitness to the Atomic bomb) |
|
|
"The day the bomb was dropped – Seeing A-bomb victims for the first
time"
Saki Mukaida (Motomachi High School, Standard Stream Creative Expression
Course, 3rd Year),
Sadae Kasaoka (Eyewitness to the Atomic bomb) |
"Half-submerged corpses between boats in the harbour"
Yuka Nishioka (Motomachi High School, Standard Stream Creative Expression
Course, 3rd Year),
Sadae Kasaoka (Eyewitness to the Atomic bomb) |
|
|
"Those slowly taken by the tide"
Kyoko Kitaoka (Motomachi High School, Standard Stream Creative Expression
Course, 2nd Year),
Kenji Kitagawa (Eyewitness to the Atomic bomb) |
"The utter transformation of busy downtown Hiroshima – Shintenchi"
Ami Yamanaka (Motomachi High School, Standard Stream Creative Expression
Course, 2nd Year),
Kenji Kitagawa (Eyewitness to the Atomic bomb) |
|
|
"The sky on 6th August"
Akane Sakamoto (Motomachi High School, Standard Stream Creative Expression
Course, 2nd Year),
Masahiro Kunishige (Eyewitness to the Atomic bomb) |
"Railway ties on fire"
Yuki Mishima (Motomachi High School, Standard Stream Creative Expression
Course, 2nd Year),
Masahiro Kunishige (Eyewitness to the Atomic bomb) |
|
|
"Screams, suffering, and finally anger"
Haruka Nomura (Motomachi High School, Standard Stream Creative Expression
Course, 2nd Year),
Masahiro Kunishige (Eyewitness to the Atomic bomb) |
"in the Brack Rain"
Momo Onaka (Motomachi High School, Standard Stream Creative Expression
Course, 2nd Year),
Takashi Teramoto (Eyewitness to the Atomic bomb) |
|
|
"on elderly neighbor's back"
Sayo Kodama (Motomachi High School, Standard Stream Creative Expression
Course, 2nd Year),
Takashi Teramoto (Eyewitness to the Atomic bomb) |
|
|
|
(Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum Outreach Division)
|
|
|
|
