Kunio Izuka’s ‘Mother and Child in Fukushima’
WEST ORANGE, NJ — The West Orange Public Library will present “Anti-Nuke Power Art,” a gallery exhibit, from Monday, March 2, through Saturday, March 28, with a reception Saturday, March 21, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the library, 46 Mt. Pleasant Ave. The reception will include a talk from participating artists.
In this exhibit, a memorial exhibition for the Tohoku-Kanto earthquake, New York-based Japanese artists use their visual art works in different media to warn that it is disapprovingly dangerous for Japan, a country prone to earthquakes, to keep nuclear power plants. Participating artists include Keiko Koshimitsu, Kazumi Nagakura, Tokoha Matsuda, Sanae M. Buck, Orin Buck Toshiko, Yukie Yasui, Kunio Iizuka, Yoshiko Ikeda, Yasuyo Tanaka, Akiko Matsuo, Mijung Kim, Aiko Aoyagi, Mikako Fujiwara, H. Max Horbund, Shinko Araki, Mieko Mitachi, Kuniyoshi Murata, Aldo Garay, Yukako, Atsuko Mu Yuma, Hiro Takeshita, Hiromi Oikawa, Akiko Yamamoto, Tomoko Hayakawa and Mitsuko Chapa Miyakawa.
“On March 11, 2011, our beautiful native country, Japan, experienced an unprecedented large earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident. Even now, after nine years from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, 45,000 people have not returned yet to their hometown. After the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, many people in Japan felt it is our responsibility to make the world aware of the dangers of nuclear power and to lead the world in anti-nuclear power awareness so as not to waste the inconceivable losses we suffered,” curator Keiko Koshimitsu said in a press release.
“Even after nine years have passed, it’s still obvious that the situation has not changed at all; we can see the government and country are depending on nuclear power. They say that it’s safe for people, but the government, politicians and related companies are lying. The disaster should have brought us all to an awareness of the safety of nuclear power, but the reality is things are becoming worse and the situation is being hidden from the public,” Koshimitsu continued. “Those with vested interests in nuclear power plants and the power structure surrounding them point to energy security and the country’s economy. What is evident in the Fukushima disaster is the hoax perpetrated by nuclear-related industry, academia and the government in deceiving the people about its safety. The news media has concealed the radioactive damage and the massive release of radioactivity that is becoming increasingly serious. Then the news of them may be erased by the power of politics.
“The whole world has been manipulated by the rhetoric of ‘peaceful use of nuclear energy.’ Now is the time to pull out from this lie and to use art to bring awareness to the devil of nuclear power.”
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