This is a sculpture about Hiroshima I made 28 years ago for a nuclear themed art show in Seattle Washington.

About 2 years prior, I had lived in Japan on a student exchange through the art department of my university. While in Japan, I visited Hiroshima. I was compelled to.
I visited all the various memorials and of course the museum. In the museum I came across a startling artifact; a boy’s school uniform hanging on a little bamboo frame, a little jacket and hat. It looked as though the clothes had been sprayed with acid from one side.
Obviously the boy had been exposed to the blast and the intense heat had disintegrated the right side of his clothing, his body as well.
I looked at that uniform for a long time.
I tried but couldn’t imagine what that boys’ last moments were like. I also couldn’t stop thinking about how the Japanese had dressed their children as smaller versions of the men who were out there fighting… little soldiers.

When the call for artists was announced for that art show, I knew where to begin. I didn’t know how it would take shape but this piece is what I ended up with.
The title of the piece is “How Could These Soldiers Have Known?”. How could they indeed? How could any of those people have known what would happen to them that August morning? They knew of air raids and the sirens to warn them of one. How though, could they know that the hell of a hundred suns would open up right over their heads? How can anyone know the horrifying and ongoing effects of radiation exposure? How could the little soldiers know anything other than how to be children?

I only showed the piece that one time and have been moving it around with me ever since, usually displaying it in my living room. Why have I held on to it for all these years? I wonder myself sometimes. As artists know, hauling around your past works is a labor unto itself. As a result, a fair amount of artwork has gone to the landfill. Not this one though.

Why show it again now, after all these years? Because we have reached the 70th anniversary of the use of nuclear weapons on an enemy during wartime and we are still perilously close to that unimaginable outcome should those weapons be used again. That’s part of why I’ve held on to the sculpture, to remind myself of that reality, never to forget it.
When I first thought of presenting the piece again, I considered re-working the figures to reflect my improved sculpture skills. Ultimately, I decided against that. I’m glad I did because I feel that the piece still conveys what it conveyed then. Updated technique or artistic subtleties don’t improve its meaning, at least not to me. With this piece, I want the connection to my artistic past to stay intact. I suppose that’s because I feel more strongly about this now than I did then.

I will concede that in the past, people might not have known how terrible the use and aftermath of nuclear bombs would be.

Now we know.

I truly believe that we as people must actually step backwards on this subject. While the world is a dangerous place, it is made more so by having the threat of absolute destruction imminent. The only way is for us to engage in complete, unilateral disarmament of all nuclear weapons by all nations. There are no useful half measures on this one.

Those children never had a chance. Neither will anyone else under those weapons.

While I’m not a religious man, I do offer a prayer here to all of us; May we deepen our understanding of history by knowing it. May the wisdom of that knowledge move us to correct action. May we never have to live through this again.