In the light of Hiroshima

A controversial art performance by Chim↑Pom in Hiroshima, which drew the word 'pika'—an onomatopoeia evoking the atomic bomb's flash—over the Peace Memorial Park, is critiqued for perpetuating the banalization and normalization of nuclear violence. The study argues that this performance did not offer a novel perspective but instead downplayed the physical harms inflicted by the bomb, particularly on injured female bodies in 1950s Japan and the U.S. By analyzing perceptions of these bodies across both countries, the research reveals how such performances contribute to the ongoing trivialization of nuclear trauma, obscuring its lasting human consequences.

Miyamoto, Y. (2017). In the light of Hiroshima. Reimagining Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 123–138. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315505572-10