Hiroshima City government initiates project to make products promoting peace with branches of A-bombed trees for 80th anniversary of atomic bombing
Dec. 16, 2023
Hiroshima City government to publicly seek organizations and companies for project in fiscal 2025
by Keiichi Nohira, Staff Writer
The Hiroshima City government will begin to utilize branches cut from A-bombed trees as part of projects commemorating the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing in 2025. The government will advertise seeking companies and organizations for the project, and provide the branches to them without charge. These companies and organizations will incorporate the branches into new products that will promote wish for peace and put those products on the market.
The city government said 160 trees in the city were registered as A-bombed trees, and that it possessed 82 trees among that number. Although the city government used to dispose of pruned branches of the 82 trees, since November, it has collected and stored them. At the moment, there are 80 branches that are more than one meter in length and more than three centimeters in diameter. In the future, too, the city government will keep branches whenever tree surgeons prune branches for recovering the vigor of the A-bombed trees. The city government will also call for cooperation of Japan’s national government and the Hiroshima Prefectural government, which possess a total of 19 A-bombed trees.
The city government will then start to publicly seek organizations and companies in fiscal 2025 that hope to utilize branches of the A-bombed trees. The city government expects these applicants to submit concrete plans for commercialization of branches of the A-bombed trees. It will provide branches for free for chosen organizations. In return, the government is considering a system of receiving a portion of the proceeds from the new products as donations and spending them on collecting and storing branches.
The remaining 59 A-bombed trees are possessed by private sectors. Part of their branches are said to be processed and sold as stationary and accessories. Shinichiro Murakami, director general of the Citizens Affairs Bureau of the Hiroshima City government, said, “The commercialization of branches of A-bombed trees is significant to raising more awareness of A-bombed trees and having peace culture take root in civil society. We will regard this project as one of the projects commemorating the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing and carry out the project in earnest.”
(Originally published on December 16, 2023)
