Hiroshima – Nagasaki 1945–2010

The Forum 2000 Foundation, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and The Nippon Foundation jointly organized an exhibition which commemorated the 65th anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. The theme of the exhibition also tied in with the treaty between the USA and the Russian Federation on the reduction of nuclear arsenals, which was signed in Prague on April 8, 2010.

 

The dropping of an atom bomb on Hiroshima towards the end of the Second World War on August 6, 1945 claimed the lives of more than 140,000 victims. A further 70,000 people died after another atomic explosion over Nagasaki. The onerous legacy of the nuclear age was recalled in a unique autumn exhibition at the Prague’s New Town Hall and The Moravian Museum in Brno. Thanks to the kind help of Japan’s Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, authentic artifacts and pictures of the atomic explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the events that occurred in the hours and days that followed, were presented in the Czech Republic for the first time. Panels displaying photographs with explanatory texts analyzed the consequences that the explosions had on the cities and their inhabitants. They recorded the suffering inflicted by the bombs, as well as the subsequent conflagrations and radioactive fall-out. They also described the efforts of medical and rescue teams to provide aid to victims under difficult conditions. Nonetheless, the exhibition did not simply recount the causes and immediate impact of the bombs, but also the subsequent renewal of the cities. In particular, it delivered a strong message of peace for the times we live in today.