PEACE MUSEUM EXHIBIT TO A-Bomb: 60 Years Later to COMMEMORATE HIROSHIMA, NAGASAKI ATOMIC BLASTS
The Hiroshima Nagasaki Atomic Bombing Exhibition opens May 6 and runs through August 14. The exhibit is open 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and 11am - 3pm on Sunday.
On May 6, the Peace Museum will open an international exhibition commemorating this year's 60th anniversary of the nuclear holocausts in Japan that ended World War II in 1945. The opening reception will include an appearance by Katsuji Yoshida, a survivor of the blast, who will tell his personal story at 7 p.m. Please call the museum at 773-638-6450 to reserve a seat. Doors open at 5 p.m. and close at 9 p.m. on opening night. Admission is $5.
The exhibit, sponsored by the citizens of Japan, in collaboration with the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Hall, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Chicago's Peace Museum, will include artifacts, photographic panels and video installments.
Visitors to the exhibition will be encouraged to make a paper crane, a symbol of the peace movement in Japan, and to create a message of peace which will be taken back to Nagasaki and kept at the Peace Memorial Hall. Throughout the spring and summer there will be programs and activities for children. (Parents are advised that the subject matter is not appropriate for the very young.) Each weekend, dramatic readings from the journals of atomic bombing survivors will be performed by actors from local theater groups.
The Peace Museum is the only remaining venue where this unique historical exhibit will be displayed in 2005.
The Hiroshima Nagasaki Atomic Bombing Exhibition opens May 6 and runs through August 14. The exhibit is open 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and 11a.m. - 3p.m. on Sunday.
Mr. Katsuji Yoshida, a survivor of the Nagasaki atomic bombing, will speak about his personal experience on opening night, May 6 at 7 p.m.
On August 9, 1945, Yoshida was a 13-year-old student, when the atomic bomb exploded a half-mile away from where he stood outside his high school. The blast threw him 130 feet in the air and severely burned his body -- torturous injuries from which he suffers to this day. "Although I have experienced the kind of agony that is difficult to talk about, I continue to speak about the tragedy of the atomic bombing and the horrors of war to as many people as humanly possible in the hope that this will bring about a true state of peace," he said.
As a member of the Nagasaki Peace Promotion Association, Mr. Yoshida works to pass on his experiences to succeeding generations. "Humans must never be made into atomic bomb victims. I pray these peaceful skies go on forever," said Mr. Yoshida.