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Hibakusha's call to humanity (Pt. 1): Behind 13 sketches sent to Nobel Peace Prize exhibit
MAINICHI
| Desember 8, 2024
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HIROSHIMA -- Thirteen drawings from Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Museum depicting the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima are set to go on display on Dec. 11, in Oslo, Norway, one day after the Nobel Peace Prize is given to Nihon Hidankyo, the grassroots organization of "hibakusha" atomic bomb survivors.
The pieces, created by survivors themselves, serve as firsthand reminders of Aug. 6, 1945 -- the day the U.S. detonated the world's first atomic bomb used in warfare over Hiroshima -- and the days that followed.
The Mainichi Shimbun sat down with the eldest son of the late anti-war artist Goro Shikoku (1924-2014), who promoted and provided advice on a project to collect such illustrations, and family members of the deceased hibakusha who drew them, to learn about the stories behind these sketches.
The 13 drawings, set for display in the Nobel Peace Center's exhibit "A Message to Humanity," were chosen from a collection of around 5,000 pieces donated to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum from local hibakusha survivors over the last 50 years. Some are on permanent display at the museum, alongside artifacts of those who died in the atomic bombing.
Shikoku, who was also a citizen of Hiroshima, had described the drawings as "the hibakusha's last will to all of humanity."
According to a catalog by the Peace Memorial Museum, the first ever "A-bomb drawing" was collected in May 1974, when 77-year-old Iwakichi Kobayashi brought a sketch to the Hiroshima branch of public broadcaster NHK. He had drawn a riverbed scene he witnessed at around 4 p.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, approximately eight hours after the atomic bomb was dropped. Alongside written descriptions, there were sketches of naked people with injuries, Thai students, a Korean person and other foreigners. After receiving the sketch, NHK initiated a project to preserve such drawings created by Hiroshima locals, and gathered 2,225 pieces over the following two years.
Around this time, Shikoku, who supported the project, appeared in TV shows to explain how the drawings should be done. Shikoku's son Hikaru, 68, who lives in Osaka, recalled his father's work, saying, "For my father, drawing was a means of expression. It didn't matter if they were clumsy sketches. What couldn't be depicted well in pictures could be made up for by adding words. By using every possible means of expression, my father urged locals to convey the situation, and to communicate."
In his home in the Osaka Prefecture city of Suita, Hikaru keeps three script books of the TV programs his father appeared in. The pages contain Shikoku's handwritten memos, such as "The precious truth, which transcends artistic skill, lies here."
Each individual poured their anguish onto sheets of paper or used calendars, using paintbrushes, pens, crayons, or whatever else they could find. The visual testimonies filled with hibakusha survivors' strength to remember and express the atrocity of the atomic bombing, allows viewers today to get a clearer picture of what it was like that day.
Shikoku, who was drafted into the Japanese army in Manchuria (currently the northeastern part of China), learned of the atomic bombing's devastation after returning to his hometown in 1948 following his detainment in Siberian camps.
"He must have looked through all the drawings that were gathered," Hikaru said. "My father, as a non-hibakusha, was hesitant to join the campaign at first. But something inside him changed, and he began to create works on the atomic bomb with more confidence." One of his representative works, the picture book "Angry Jizo," was published in 1979.
The project to collect A-bomb drawings was relaunched in 2002, by the municipal governments of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as NHK, and more illustrations have been donated since. Hikaru, who has been working to spread his father's legacy, says, "A 'will' holds meaning only if it is passed on to later generations. These sorts of drawings must never be made again, and I want them to reach the world, and keep being used."
(By Noboru Ujo, Osaka City News Department)
(This is Part 1 of a 2-part series.)
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