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Canberra Today 14°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

The positive face of nuclear horror

A NEW exhibition revealing the “devastation and horror” of Japan’s 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings through a set of confronting images aims to highlight the threat of nuclear weapons to a new generation.

“Memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: a quest for peace” is a 35-panel display of photographs sourced from Hiroshima’s Peace Museum, with original artifacts from the tragic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and Nagasaki three days later.

Each panel tells a story of the horror experienced when the atomic bombs were dropped, eventually killing over 90,000 people in Hiroshima and over 60,000 in Nagasaki.

Held at the High Court of Australia on the eve of the 68th anniversary of the bombings, the exhibition’s launch will feature a Japanese opera singer, children’s choir and a talk by a Hiroshima survivor.

Executive director of the Australian Red Cross in the ACT/SE NSW, Joan Hughes, brought the exhibition to Canberra as part of the humanitarian organisation’s ongoing commitment to support a world-wide prohibition on the use of nuclear weapons.

“The images in this exhibition not only show the devastation caused, but are also testimony to the power of human spirit and humanitarian ideals, shared in the profound hope that Hiroshima and Nagasaki will never be repeated,” Joan says.

“We expect plenty of schoolchildren as well as the general public to come to the exhibition, so we really want to get people talking about it again and thinking seriously about banning any further development of nuclear weapons.”

One of the exhibition’s stories focuses on Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who was two years old when the atomic bomb dropped near her home in Hiroshima, and died 10 years later from an “atom-bomb” related disease.

Sadako is remembered for making 1000 origami cranes before her death while in hospital and is still, to this day, thought of as a symbol of innocent victims of war.

“Memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: a quest for peace” will be open at the High Court of Australia from August 5 to 28. Entry is free.

MAIN PICTURE: Joan Hughes, of the Red Cross… “We really want to get people talking.” Photo by Brent McDonald 

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