Traveling to Japan was a distant thought, barely even a dream, back in 2013 when I began working on the BRANDED series.
I never imagined as a young Midwestern girl (raised very Conservatively and Religiously) that I could nurture and retain and now expand an open, empathetic worldview. It isn’t my desire to say much politically (I cringe from fanatics of ANY kind), yet I yearn for a world where humans treat one another humanely. A world where raising arms is not the “go to” answer to disagreements. Which, by the way - Why Can’t We Just Disagree? Why do YOU (any group) have to beat me (or anyone else) with a stick if I don’t agree with you?
Hibakusha Trio, Encaustic Scuptures by Sher Fick
What I do know: every act of war is an atrocity.
Japan’s general attitude has shifted since immediately after the Atomic Bomb (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945). Soon after the bombs, the survivors were shunned (not marriageable material as many were sick, or assumed they would become so, that they would carry inheritable defects; basically, they were DIFFERENT and tainted). I’ve been reading on the events and aftermath for 5 years now and am happy to say that the Japanese heart softened to the Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) and have embraced and even honoured them. The process of healing includes collection of witness reports (and drawings), the creation of art and, from my site in HIroshima, memorials from all over the world. The event is something to be remembered.
The exhibition Iri & Toshi Muruki: Understanding the Hiroshima Panels and Collection Highlights & Special Feature1: The Century with Mushroom Clouds/Special Feature2: Prayer at The Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art does much to put the art that has been created about not only the Hiroshima Atomic Bombing, but the subject of nuclear inspired art, into both an historical and conceptual viewpoint.
May it never be repeated.
