| 4.1 |
Radiation Effects Research Foundation (former ABCC) founded |
| 4.30 |
End of Vietnam War |
| 8.5 |
Nagasaki and Hiroshima sign Peace Culture City Agreement in Hiroshima |
| 8.6 |
Hiroshima City sends out 1,176 copies of the Peace Declaration,
including 250 overseas |
| 10.15 |
Hiroshima Toyo Carp win first Central League baseball title |
|
| 4.1 |
Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation established |
| 7.27 |
Plaintiffs win in Ishida atomic bombing case |
| 8.6 |
Prime Minister Takeo Miki attends Peace Memorial Ceremony and becomes
first prime minister to meet atomic bombing victim representatives |
| 9.19 |
Hiroshima City completes 7-year restoration survey |
| 11 |
Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki appeal to UN secretary-general
for the abolition of nuclear weapons and sweeping disarmament |
|
| 8.3 |
Japan Congress against A- and H-bombs (Gensuikin) and Japan Council
against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Gensuikyo) hold a first joint global
gathering in Hiroshima in 14 years |
| 8.6 |
President of UN General Assembly, South Korean atomic bomb victims
and others attend Peace Memorial Ceremony |
|
| 2.27 |
Non-governmental organizations hold disarmament conference |
| 5.20 |
Hiroshima-Nagasaki photography exhibition at UN |
| 8.6 |
Japan Congress against A- and H-bombs (Gensuikin) holds international
conference in Hiroshima with first participation of prefectural women's
group and other citizens' organizations in 15 years |
| 12.26 |
Pictures by bomb victims placed in the Peace Memorial Museum collection |
|
| 3.28 |
Three Mile Island nuclear accident in US |
| 7.28 |
Hiroshima City commences lending out of bombing-related exhibits |
| 8.6 |
Peace Declaration at Peace Memorial Ceremony includes demand for
government to revise assistance for atomic bombing victims |
|
Sights Burned
on the Memory
"I
am determined to leave a record of the hellish scenes I saw that day
before I die."
Iwakichi Kobayashi visited NHK Hiroshima Station
at the age of 77 on May 15, 1974, wearing a pair of traditional Japanese
wooden clogs. He had brought a drawing that he wanted to show NHK.
Mr. Kobayashi's moving words triggered a campaign to encourage citizens
of Hiroshima to preserve their memories of the bombing in pictorial
form. Mr. Kobayashi's picture was shown on a campaign program, and
produced a tremendous response.
The atomic bomb pictures provide a first-hand
visual record from the survivors. They were introduced in a program
called The People's
Pictures: Drawings of the A-bomb Aftermath in 1975.
The pictures were shown in a traveling exhibition
across the United States in 1982. NHK Special also made a documentary
program of this exhibition, aired as, This
is Hiroshima (1982).
|
|
Miraculous Pictures by Miraculous
Survivors
The atomic-bomb pictures have a special
value. Hardly any photographs or movie footage survive as a visual
record of the devastation as it was on the day of the bombing itself.
The personal memories and experiences of survivors are the only
source for imagining the moment of the blast and the hellish scenes
that followed. The A-bomb pictures are a miraculous part of our
record of the 20th century, based as they are on the memories of
those who were there and miraculously survived.
NHK's endeavor to encourage ordinary citizens
to draw their own pictures of A-bombing as a legacy for the future
was, along with that other project to reconstruct the community
lost at the A-bomb epicenter, very widely appreciated. In both of
these cases, NHK was fulfilling its functions and role in accordance
with the local needs.
|
- 900 pictures contributed by the end of July, 1974 (Contributors
ranging from a 36-year-old housewife who was seven at the
time to a 90-year-old man.)
- 2,225 pictures in two years, from 758 contributors. (All
officially donated to Hiroshima City as part of the permanent
collection of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.)
NHK organized a new campaign for atomic bomb pictures after
a gap of 28 years in the summer of 2002, this time in collaboration
with the Chugoku Shimbun newspaper and others, once again
inviting the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to contribute
A-bomb related pictures and drawings.
- 1,338 pictures were received from 484 Hiroshima citizens
and 300 pictures from 130 Nagasaki citizens
- From 1976 to 1978, another picture campaign was launched
on the theme of My Own Fond Memories of Hiroshima, inviting
citizens to describe in pictures and drawings street scenes
and lifestyles of prewar Hiroshima lost in the atomic bombing.
800 pictures were received
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