Hiroshima Appeals 2007
Comment from Designer
It was a fine day in Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945. There was a flash of light.
A right to life is given to anyone. The cruelest death suddenly visits a remote peaceful place from a battlefield.
Many innocent children have died with nobody’s presence. Again, strong sorrow and anger wells up in my heart.
We can’t forgive the reckless action of an A-bomb dropping down on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“Design work always has to be positive, pure, righteous and beautiful.” This has been my motto in my whole life up until now.
But in making the poster of “Hiroshima Appeals 2007” I decided to appeal with the straight emotion of sorrow and anger. This emotion includes the anger of my powerlessness because I could not do anything in particular for this cause.
This black circle is the symbol to express sorrow and anger of people who died silently.
This circle also stands for the largest error of human beings, the burned Japanese flag and the earth in despair.
No more Hiroshima! No more Nagasaki!
Though 60 years have passed since then, why is war not over?
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