For Peace

2022.03.
[Posted on my Instagram account]

It is painful to see the violence and disruption directed at the Ukrainian people. It is painful that this is one more of many violences we’ve seen and created around the world, even just in the past year. Hearing of these attacks on civilians, children’s hospitals, people trying to protect and preserve Ukrainian arts and culture from these air raids… Protecting from erasure, the Ukrainian identity. I have no words.

Seeing the racism that is revealed through this war, from many different directions, is upsetting, painful, infuriating and eye-opening. Pain and fear is intensified by the looming presence of atomic weapons and air raids striking the nuclear power plant. I can only hope that the tragedy of nuclear weapons being dropped will not be repeated again. For there to be no more lives lost than already lost.

I’m not sure what to do other than make artwork, in hopes of peace, in hopes of this war ending. All wars ending.

There was a young girl who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and developed leukemia later in her childhood. In hopes of getting better, believing that folding thousand paper cranes would cure her illness, as has been believed for many years in Japan, she continued to fold paper cranes until she no longer could. Though folding the paper cranes did not bring back her health, her resilience still lives today as a symbol of hope, peace and love.

I folded this crane, and will continue to fold paper cranes in hopes of a more peaceful world, free of nuclear and other destructive weapons. As a Japanese citizen, as the only nation having experienced the destruction and scars of atomic bombs, I will continue to speak out against nuclear weapons. I want us to keep creating with love, not with war, violence, and the sacrifices of human lives.

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