Japan Guide
Kyūshū
Peace Park
A long flight of steps leads up into the Peace Park, or Heiwa-kōen, which is as popular among anti-nuclear lobbyists trawling for signatures as it is for young kids skateboarding among the donated plaques and memorials, watched over by sculptor Kitamura Seibō's muscular Peace Statue. The figure, right hand pointing skyward at the threat of nuclear destruction, left extended to hold back the forces of evil, was unveiled in 1955. As Kazuo Ishiguro remarked in A Pale View of the Hills, from a distance the figure resembles a "policeman conducting traffic", but when some elderly figure pauses on the way past, head bowed, it's not easy to remain cynical.