On Sunday, July 27th, five students from Faculty of Art and Design Department of Painting, Yasuhide Kunimoto Laboratory (four Department of Fine Arts and Media Sciences and one from the Graduate Graduate School of Fine Arts) donated the works they created as part of the "Atomic Bomb Experience Painting Project" to the Fukuoka City Atomic Bomb Victims Association. The project involves interviewing atomic bomb survivors about the scenes and situations they experienced at the time and painting them.
This project was initiated in response to a request from the Fukuoka City Atomic Bomb Victims Association (Chuo Ward, Fukuoka City) in 2022 to "create paintings that convey the experiences of the atomic bomb survivors at the time and the feelings that cannot be fully conveyed through words, photographs, or documents." This year, five students who agreed with the request will once again meet with survivors in January 2025 to determine the scenes and direction to be painted while listening to their stories. After checking the composition and color tones of the paintings, they completed four paintings (53cm x 45.5cm).
Seeing the finished work for the first time since checking the rough sketch in March, the survivor instinctively covered his mouth with his hand and choked up as he said, "When I saw the painting, the scenes from that time came back to me and tears came to my eyes. I am truly grateful to the students for expressing the fear of the atomic bombing, which is difficult to convey in words."
Shizuka Yoshitsune (Chikuyo Gakuen High School), a third-year student in the same department, painted a picture of the scene immediately after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Looking back on her activities, she said, "I actually visited Hiroshima, the site of the bombing, and as I spoke with witnesses, I gradually began to feel the tragedy of that time. I thought that through painting I might be able to convey something to people who cannot look directly at photographs or videos, so I completed the work. I think this is an undertaking that only we, majoring in painting, could undertake on the 80th anniversary of the end of the war."
The donated works will be exhibited at the City of Peace Museum special exhibition and the 9th Peace Panel Exhibition (Namiki Square), and will also be used as explanatory materials for testimony activities. Please come and see them.
[Faculty of Art and Design / Graduate School of Fine Arts]
