Hiroshima Appeals 2008
Comment from Designer
I have created a poster for the Hiroshima Appeals poster campaign in conjunction with the citizens of Hiroshima. The participants were asked to press “Peace” stamps as representatives of the City of Hiroshima, Japan and the world. They were asked to press “Peace” stamps on behalf of all people who love peace. This poster was produced from the stamps for Peace of all these people. The Mayor of Hiroshima, the director of the Citizens Affairs Bureau, municipal employees, representatives of the press, the Medical Association, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, local students, members of the local branch of the Japan Graphic Designers Association (JAGDA), designers of recent Hiroshima Appeals posters, the JAGDA secretariat, Toppan Printing Company technicians, friends, acquaintances, family members and by six-year-old and two-and-a-half-year-old grandchildren of mine all participated. Thank you! I ask all of you to write “Peace” at the end of the journal entries, e-mail and letters you write from day to day as a substitute for the Peace stamps. “Take care. Be seeing you. Peace!” or “Today was a great day. Peace!” Let’s say the word everyday, over and over again, like a mantra: Peace! Let each and every one of us cultivate peace in our hearts. Peace is something we keep safe in our hearts and minds. It is something that is diffused by our hearts and minds. It is not something that can be defended or spread by military might. Both peace and war thrive in hearts and minds. Each and every one of us must strive to cultivate peace in our hearts and minds.
Hiroshima Appeals Poster Campaign
In 1983, the Japan Graphic Designers Association Inc. (JAGDA) and the Hiroshima International Cultural Foundation announced their collaboration on a project focusing on the theme “Hiroshima’s Spirit” and launched a poster campaign with the goal of promoting peace at home and abroad. The first poster, entitled “Burning Butterflies”, was created by Yusaku Kamekura, the president of JAGDA at the time. Designers affiliated with JAGDA produce one poster each year.
The posters are sold to the general public and exhibited in a nationwide tour called the “Peace Poster Exhibition”. Posters in the series have engaged citizens around the world, displayed in the Atomic Bomb Exhibition preceding to the historic 1985 Geneva Summit, and the exhibition entitled “Hiroshima: A Message for Peace among People” held in Barcelona and Valencia in Spain, and Aosta in Italy in 1997. The 2008 poster was sent to several member cities whose mayors are members of the international group Mayors for Peace. The “Hiroshima Appeals” project, conducted annually from 1983 till 1991, was reinstated in 2005 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Designers: 1983 Yusaku Kamekura; 1984 Kiyoshi Awazu; 1985 Shigeo Fukuda; 1986 Yoshio Hayakawa; 1987 Kazumasa Nagai; 1988 Ikko Tanaka; 1989 Mitsuo Katsui; 1990 Eiko Ishioka; 2005 Masayoshi Nakajo; 2006 Koichi Sato; 2007 Shin Matsunaga; 2008 Masuteru Aoba