FUKUOKA —
Japanese artist Seitaro Kuroda and a Hiroshima citizens group are aiming to
publish a picture book in late July that explains in an easy-to-understand
manner a protocol proposed by an international group of mayors calling for
nuclear elimination.
Kuroda, 70, said he proposed publishing such a book
that can be read easily by children after perusing the protocol and thinking
that it contained good elements but was ‘‘rigid with too many kanji
characters.’’
The book will feature illustrations by Kuroda, including
that of the mushroom cloud and flowers, and explanatory text by Michi Matsugami,
a copywriter who lives in Hiroshima, as well as their English
translations.
It will include anti-nuclear peace messages from students
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two Japanese cities on which the U.S. military
dropped atomic bombs during World War II.
The citizens group will
self-publish the 64-page book, printing about 5,000 copies to be sold for 500
yen each.
‘‘It’s sad that the general feeling is that once the
anniversaries of the atomic bombings are over, you don’t have to console the
souls (of the victims) until the next year,’’ said Kuroda, who lives in
Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture.
‘‘I want the picture book to work as a
catalyst for people to hold discussion by passing it from hand to hand and
asking, ‘What do you think about this book?’’’ he added.
Mayors for
Peace, chaired by Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba and with more than 2,000
members worldwide, proposed the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol in April last
year.
The protocol seeks an immediate stop to all efforts to obtain or
use nuclear weapons, including by nuclear states, with a view to eliminating
nuclear arms by 2020.