Hiroshima Appeals 2023

2023.7.11

Design: Norio Nakamura Title: Index Finger

Designer’s Comment

For as long as I can remember, the last war has seemed like an ancient event to our generation. I was raised under what I believed was a long period of peace. As I grow older, though, I realize how complacent I’ve been about the dangers of this world. Earthquakes, nuclear meltdowns, pandemics, war… In a world troubled by the knowledge that unimaginable things can keep happening, there is still a small part of me that feels like a bystander who thinks they will never use nuclear weapons again. I want to question my awareness of this world one more time.

As I glanced at my smartphone while preparing this poster, I saw a live broadcast of the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, with the leaders of each nation leaving the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum to head toward the Memorial Monument for Hiroshima, City of Peace. Nuclear weapons are nothing more than the work of people. What people give rise to, people can stop.

I had this thought in mind as I expressed the “now” that sits adjacent to 1945. This finger is a symbol of human fragility. I named this work “Index Finger.” I hope it can serve as a chain linking together the Hiroshima Appeals in 2023.

Hiroshima Appeals Poster Campaign

The Hiroshima Appeals is a poster campaign themed on Hiroshima’s Spirit that transcends words to widely convey the prayers and wishes of Hiroshima, which experienced the ravages of the first atomic bomb used on mankind. Since 1983, with the first poster Burning Butterflies by Yusaku Kamekura, JAGDA has designated a member designer to produce a poster each year until 1990, and resumed in 2005 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. The posters are presented to the mayor of Hiroshima City every year, and were presented to member cities of Mayors of Peace in 2005 and 2008. They were also exhibited at Press Centre of G7 Hiroshima Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in 2016. In this way the posters have promoted peace at home and abroad.

Sponsors:

Hiroshima International Cultural Foundation

Hiroshima Peace Creation Fund

Japan Graphic Design Association Inc. (JAGDA) Hiroshima Chapter

Cooperation:

Toppan Inc.

TAKEO Co., Ltd.

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, 2016 Takahisa Kamijyo, 2017 Kenya Hara, 2018 Kazunari Hattori, 2019 Katsuhiko Shibuya, 2020 Yoshie Watanabe, 2021 Takuya Onuki, 2022 Kashiwa Sato, 2023 Norio Nakamura