A SERIES of photographs taken at Faslane Peace Camp over a six-month period will go on show at Blend Coffee House in Perth next month after a successful debut at the Edinburgh World Justice Festival.
The images were taken by Perth-based photographer Gareth King, a graduate of Edinburgh College. They document life in the camp and capture preparations for a visit by Japanese survivors of the “Little Boy” atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during the Second World War.
With the crisis between North Korea and Japan – and nuclear brinkmanship between Washington and Pyongyang – showing no signs of abating, the Japanese feel the threat of nuclear war is very real.
King said: “Although there are more dramatic hard news stories out there that capture the headlines, I believe the quieter stories are no less important. By shining a light on the more hidden corners we don’t often see in the headlines, I hope to inspire conversation about the wider world, nuclear disarmament, the Peace Camp and other art based projects like the 140,000 Paper Cranes Project.”
He pictured the Peace Boat in Edinburgh, carrying young climate-change ambassadors and Tokuko Kimura, who survived the “Fat Man” atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. He also pictured them at the Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre contributing to the Paper Cranes Project, which remembers the effect of the Hiroshima bomb that killed 140,000 people.
Folding paper cranes for peace was inspired by the story of Sadako, a Japanese girl who was two years old when the Hiroshima bomb was dropped. She developed leukaemia when she was ten and while in hospital heard a legend that anyone who folded 1000 paper cranes would have their wish granted. She died aged 12. A statue of her, holding a golden crane is in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, with a plaque that reads: “This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world.”
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