FUKUOKA (Kyodo) Artist Seitaro Kuroda and a Hiroshima citizens' group are aiming to publish a picture book in late July that explains in an easy-to-understand manner a protocol proposed by an international group of mayors calling for nuclear disarmament.
Kuroda, 70, said he proposed publishing a book that can be read easily by children after perusing the protocol and thinking it contained good elements but was "rigid with too many kanji."
The book will feature illustrations by Kuroda, including that of a mushroom cloud and flowers, and explanatory text by Michi Matsugami, a copywriter who lives in Hiroshima, in Japanese and English.
It will include antinuclear peace messages from students in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The citizens' group will self-publish the 64-page book, printing about 5,000 copies to be sold for ¥500 each.
"It's sad that the general feeling is that once the anniversaries of the atomic bombings are over, you don't have to console the souls (of the victims) until the next year," said Kuroda, who lives in Kitakyushu.
"I want the picture book to work as a catalyst for people to hold discussion by passing it from hand to hand and asking, 'What do you think about this book?' " he added.
Mayors for Peace, chaired by Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba and boasting more than 2,000 members worldwide, proposed the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol in April 2008.
The protocol seeks an immediate stop to all efforts to obtain or use atomic weapons, including by nuclear states, with the ultimate goal of eliminating all nuclear arms by 2020.
