Hiroshima Appeals 2015
Comment from Designer
I’m the fourth designer of a “Hiroshima Appeals” poster to have been born in the postwar era, and I struggled even more than I imagined in deciding what kind of visual I should aim for. What I ultimately decided on was a large balance weight, of the kind normally placed on a balance scale, sitting atop a pile of documents. Seventy years ago Hiroshima’s fate hung in the balance – and an atom bomb was dropped on it. The party that drops a bomb has an argument to justify its actions. In my graphic, the balancing weight named Hiroshima is a heavy one, and it presses the documents down greatly. The documents represent every kind of “argument” imaginable, and the weight of Hiroshima presses down on them. My intention was to express that there are some things that, no matter what argument might be put forward, one must never do. A lone butterfly is seen perched on the weight. I intended it as a reincarnation of the burning butterflies depicted in the very first “Hiroshima Appeals” poster, by Yusaku Kamekura.
Hiroshima Appeals Poster Campaign
In 1983, the Japan Graphic Designers Association Inc. (JAGDA) and the Hiroshima International Cultural Foundation announced their collaboration on a project focusing on the theme “Hiroshima’s Spirit” and launched a poster campaign with the goal of promoting peace at home and abroad. The first poster, entitled “Burning Butterflies”, was created by Yusaku Kamekura, the president of JAGDA at the time. Designers affiliated with JAGDA produce one poster each year.
The posters are sold to the general public and exhibited in a nationwide tour called the “Peace Poster Exhibition”. Posters in the series have engaged citizens around the world, displayed in the Atomic Bomb Exhibition preceding to the historic 1985 Geneva Summit, and the exhibition entitled “Hiroshima: A Message for Peace among People” held in Barcelona and Valencia in Spain, and Aosta in Italy in 1997. The 2008 poster was sent to several member cities whose mayors are members of the international group Mayors for Peace. The “Hiroshima Appeals” project, conducted annually from 1983 till 1991, was reinstated in 2005 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Designers: 1983 Yusaku Kamekura; 1984 Kiyoshi Awazu; 1985 Shigeo Fukuda; 1986 Yoshio Hayakawa; 1987 Kazumasa Nagai; 1988 Ikko Tanaka; 1989 Mitsuo Katsui; 1990 Eiko Ishioka; 2005 Masayoshi Nakajo; 2006 Koichi Sato; 2007 Shin Matsunaga; 2008 Masuteru Aoba; 2009 Katsumi Asaba; 2010 Keisuke Nagatomo; 2011 Susumu Endo; 2012 Yukimasa Okumura; 2013 Kaoru Kasai; 2014 Tsuguya Inoue; 2015 Taku Satoh