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Woman Playing
Koto
Fuki Takata
A Bomb Survivors' Nursing Home
Hiroshima Japan
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The
Hibakusha Peace Project is an opportunity to reflect on the memory of
Hiroshima with the hope of transformation. It is a series
of collage
portraits of A-Bomb survivors by Jane Smith
Bernhardt, accompanied by their stories and poems.
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In
August of 2003, Jane spent two weeks in Hiroshima,
interviewing survivors and capturing their likenesses on
paper. |
Opening
events feature live multimedia performances including slides,
stories and featuring music by Greta Bro / Peter Meyer and dance by
Minori Ishikawa.
The experience offers an invitation for
meditation and messages to be returned to the survivors ... to be
ceremonially released into one of the rivers of Hiroshima, that were
clogged with bodies many years ago.
Jane
with Tadatoshi Akiba
Mayor, City of Hiroshima
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A poem by
Hiromu Morishita
Hiroshima A Bomb Survivor
Executive Director of
The World Friendship Center
Hiroshima
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THE
FIRST AID STATION - Fragment
The woman, fearing
a
shock might come
upon me due to my
monster-like
changed features,
would not let me
have a mirror.
Unable to go through
the streets too hot
from embers
after blazing,
I crossed over an
iron-bridge,
feeling uneasiness at
every cross-tie
smoldering.
Following advice on
how to reach the
first-aid station,
which, in reality,
is a bank-building,
I just caught sight of
numberless corpses
behind the pillars.
Bewildered to stand
in front of my
house-site,
I found nothing
reminding me of the
house which I left
only this morning.
Auntie is said to have
died vomiting a black
sort of foam,
after just a few days.
She had come to see
me of my suffering
from a burn.
In desperation of
self-scorn and
self-abandonment
I have been doing
nothing but to wait for
the nearing death,
watching the burning
of the corpses on the
river beach almost
everyday. |
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Jane (center)
Lecture / Presentation ~ Dec 1, 2006
Muslim University
Ahigarh India
For information on exhibits, prints and performances,
or to become a Sponsor of
Hibakusha Peace Project
please
contact:
Jane Smith Bernhardt at
(603) 793-9789
or
e-mail Jane
Donations
in any amount are gratefully accepted to help with the
Hibakusha Peace Project
production costs.
Read some comments
from ~
The Hibakusha Peace Project Guest Book:
"Great rendering in your art - the stories
of those affected are very sad."
"Breathtaking."
"Thank you for having the courage to create beauty out of such
horror."
"You have touched me deeply - thank you."
"awakening to our own sin."
"beauty in agony"
"never again"
"puts everything in perspective - the work is overwhelming."
"exquisite art reminding us of diplomacy. Reminding us of the
tortures of war."
"awakening"
"gut wrenching"
"It's amazing to observe the affects of weapons of mass
destruction as seen in the artwork."
"history beyond imagination"
"complete"
"So sad that it had to happen. So thankful that because of it -
we had thousands of Americans come home - my husband was one of
them."
"I was in Tokyo two weeks after the bombing"
"moved me to tears"
"Thank you for bringing this to all of us. We will try to share
your message."
"Thank you for bringing/sharing. We all have to say in unison -
NEVER AGAIN!!"
"Thank you for the gift of showing my children how to set their
conviction to work."
"Powerful - Faces for the ages and generations to come"
"Both beautiful and terrifying, but grace abounds" (You.... I
like this one!)
"Amazing - thank you - moving. We must stop war and nuclear
weapons!!"
"Lord have mercy upon us. Thank you for this exhibit."
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Jane
teaches and lectures on a variety of topics including
spiritual guidance,
portraiture, resistance and social transformation.
Contact
Jane for details.
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