Sculpture based on A-bomb victim’s tricycle to go on display at museum in Geneva
Jul. 4, 2024
by Minami Yamashita, Staff Writer
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a non-governmental organization, announced on July 3 it would donate a sculpture to the city of Geneva, Switzerland, and to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum located in that same city. The bronze sculpture was based on a tricycle that belonged to a child who died in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. It will be on permanent display from September 19.
The tricycle belonged to Shinichi Tetsutani, who died at the age of 3 after the atomic bombing, and is on display at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in the city’s Naka Ward. With consent of his family, a group of Japanese and American artists commissioned by ICAN created an actual-size sculpture based on digitally scanned data in 2022.
When Beatrice Finn, then Executive Director of ICAN, visited the museum in 2018, the tricycle left a strong impression on her. She suggested an object symbolizing the inhumanity of nuclear weapons be placed in the city of Geneva, which has a United Nations Office as well as ICAN’s headquarters. It was decided to create a sculpture of the tricycle.
At a press conference held at Hiroshima City Hall on July 3, Akira Kawasaki, a member of the ICAN international steering committee, said, “The tricycle has the power to make people of any country realize that people lived there. By placing the sculpture in Geneva, the center of disarmament negotiations, the message of nuclear abolition will continue to be conveyed.”
(Originally published on July 4, 2024)
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a non-governmental organization, announced on July 3 it would donate a sculpture to the city of Geneva, Switzerland, and to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum located in that same city. The bronze sculpture was based on a tricycle that belonged to a child who died in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. It will be on permanent display from September 19.
The tricycle belonged to Shinichi Tetsutani, who died at the age of 3 after the atomic bombing, and is on display at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in the city’s Naka Ward. With consent of his family, a group of Japanese and American artists commissioned by ICAN created an actual-size sculpture based on digitally scanned data in 2022.
When Beatrice Finn, then Executive Director of ICAN, visited the museum in 2018, the tricycle left a strong impression on her. She suggested an object symbolizing the inhumanity of nuclear weapons be placed in the city of Geneva, which has a United Nations Office as well as ICAN’s headquarters. It was decided to create a sculpture of the tricycle.
At a press conference held at Hiroshima City Hall on July 3, Akira Kawasaki, a member of the ICAN international steering committee, said, “The tricycle has the power to make people of any country realize that people lived there. By placing the sculpture in Geneva, the center of disarmament negotiations, the message of nuclear abolition will continue to be conveyed.”
(Originally published on July 4, 2024)
