Hiroshima

Art Director Fuji Mizutani

Photographer Jin Yoshida

Date1983

Dimensions16 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. (42.5 x 29.2 cm)

ClassificationsPoster

Credit LinePoster House Permanent Collection

Terms

Object numberPH.7497

DescriptionThis poster was created as part of a Japanese Peace Posters series, a counterpart to the American Images for Survival campaign that included 126 posters by the most prominent graphic designers in the United States. Meant to encourage peace in the prolonged aftermath of the nuclear attacks against Japan, they were displayed in the Hiroshima Museum of Art alongside designs like this one, with simultaneous exhibitions held in Washington, D.C. and New York City.
The poignant composition focuses on a wristwatch fused into its surroundings on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m. by the heat of a nuclear blast. It is the only trace left of its owner, who was presumably vaporized by the bomb.
In October 2024, Nihon Hidankyo (the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization) won the Nobel Peace Prize for its nearly seven-decade record of activism against the use of nuclear weapons. Known as hibakusha, those who survived have faced discrimination and numerous health problems attributed to radiation exposure.

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