Isamu Noguchi’s Bridge Railings in Post-War Imaginations of Hiroshima

Session II : Post-War Japan

In the early 1950s, Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) designed railings for two newly constructed bridges in the centre of Hiroshima: the Peace Bridge and the West Peace Bridge. These bridges mark one of the entrances to Peace Memorial Park, which was then under construction near ground zero of the 1945 atomic bombing. The rising form of the Peace Bridge’s railings was prevalent in establishing Hiroshima’s post-war image as a ‘city of peace.’ Although Noguchi was originally commissioned to design a cenotaph, this plan was rejected, presumably because of the artist’s American citizenship. The realisation of the bridge railings therefore embodies the somewhat mixed perception of Noguchi as a Japanese American artist in post-war Hiroshima. This paper aims to reveal further complexities in this reception by analysing the ways in which the image of the two bridges appeared in the post-war discourse and representation of Hiroshima in a variety of media, from municipal publications, tourist advertisements and even post offices’ special cancellation stamps to literature. Archival research has shown that the city of Hiroshima and some of the relevant bodies extensively used images of Noguchi’s railings from around the time of the bridges’ inauguration until the early 1960s. This decade coincided roughly with the domestic promotion of the ‘peaceful’ use of nuclear energy after the tragedy of Hiroshima, a city that had fallen victim to the ‘military’ use of the same energy. Nonetheless, some kept their distance from the celebratory climate of the contemporary reception of Noguchi’s railings, particularly those who opposed the remilitarisation of Japan’s and the US military presence. Noguchi’s American affiliation was often implied in the context of this criticism. This paper considers the possibility that Noguchi’s citizenship was also a matter of interest in relation to the two bridges in post-war Hiroshima, not only as a contribution to the internationalism of the rebuilt city but also as a reminder of the bombing and continued military presence.