ASU Downtown hosts atomic bomb exhibit

A-bomb exhibit runs from Oct. 27-Nov.6

A traveling poster exhibit promoting peace, education, art and cultural exchange is making a stop at the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus.

The Arizona traveling exhibit of “Hiroshima Calling”, a collection of approximately 30 informational posters chronicling the August 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is on display at Information Commons, the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus library located at University Center, 411 N. Central Ave. The exhibit is free and open to the public. It runs through Nov. 6.

“Hiroshima Calling will help us remember world history, including stories of loss and devastation across cultures,” said Liz Zakos, program manager for the exhibit in Arizona. “It reminds us to have hope and to live with our neighbors in a peaceful society.

The goal of the exhibit is to reach 101 cities in the United States during a two-year period that will end Dec. 31, 2008, Zakos said. Some of the cities that have hosted the exhibit include Lafayette, Ind., Raleigh, N.C., Wilmington, Del., Bozeman, Mont., and Oakland, Calif. Arizona is the last state to host the exhibit.

The poster series includes information and images on the effects of the atomic bomb, before and after images of the cities, survival after the bombing, heat rays, high-temperature fire, reconstruction, effects of radiation on the body and a goal toward a peaceful world free from nuclear weapons.

“The project is important for its international significance and because some members of our community lived in Japan when the bomb was detonated or who had relatives living there,” said Kathryn Nakagawa, interim director for the Asian Pacific American Studies program in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “We want to send a message about never forgetting what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to continue to promote peace.”

The traveling exhibit is sponsored by the World Youth Visit Exchange Association of Arizona in partnership with Ken Koshio Project, ASU Pacific American Studies Program and NAU Center for Asian Studies Program and NAU Center for Asian Studies. Hiroshima Calling will travel to five different Arizona locations from October through November, 2008.

For more information, call (602) 234-4767 or visit www.hiroshimacalling.org.