Children stricken with terror run screaming from the explosion. The lucky ones die instantly. The others fall to the ground, writhing in pain and praying death will come soon.
The people of Nagasaki and Hiroshima want people to remember the terror and destruction an atomic bomb can cause.
The ASU Downtown campus library is hosting “Hiroshima Calling,” a traveling poster exhibit promoting peace, education, art and cultural exchange.
Japanese folk artist Ken Koshio worked with the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum to bring the exhibit to America. He said it is important to remind people of Japan’s atrocities, especially at a time when other countries are threatening to use atomic bombs.
“It’s like the picture of the mushroom cloud,” Koshio said. “We know the mushroom cloud, but we don’t really know what happened down there.
Knowing those kinds of things could show us how to be better human beings.”
The exhibit is comprised of 30 posters chronicling the World War II atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945.
Kathryn Nakagawa, interim director of the Asian Pacific American studies program, said she hopes the exhibit will help educate individuals who aren’t aware of the tragedy that surrounds the bombings.
“The survivors from these cities wanted to ensure that people didn’t forget the devastation that happened from this bomb,” Nakagawa said. “They wanted people to remember so it wouldn’t happen again.”
The survivors of the 1945 bombings created the transportable exhibit to reach a wider audience, Nakagawa said.
“Already I have had a number of people thank us for having the exhibit and for teaching students,” Nakagawa said. “I think that shows it is making an impact.”
The goal of the exhibit is to visit two cities in every state plus one in Washington D.C. The exhibit began touring the U.S. in August and will make its last stop on Dec. 31, Nakagawa said.
The exhibit will be downtown until Nov. 6, when it will move to the Arizona Historical Society.
Health sciences librarian Kathleen Carlson, a third-generation Japanese American, said the content of the exhibit holds special significance to her because it relates to her heritage.
Carlson said she thinks many Americans are not familiar with this incident because they don’t recognize the relevance to their lives.
“I think [the bombings] are too far removed for most Americans,” Carlson said. “I don’t think people realize that if Iran or North Korea or Pakistan drops the A-bomb, this is what will happen. And it will be on a much larger scale than this because the bomb has become so much more powerful.”
Between classes, Carolyn De Vane took a moment to walk through the exhibit. De Vane, a social work junior, said she had learned about the bombings but had never seen them illustrated in this manner. De Vane said the exhibit highlighted questions she has contemplated for a long time.
“It has been an ongoing curiosity of mine what will happen if Iraq or North Korea nukes us,” De Vane said. “What would the people in the U.S. do if somebody did that to us? Would we say that it is evil, even though we did that to someone else?”
She said the exhibit should be sent to war-torn countries.
“I think this exhibit needs to be in Iraq and then in North Korea to show the people in their country what can happen,” she said.
Reach the reporter at lauren.gambino@asu.edu.
