Monument Dedicated to Sankichi Tooge

This monument stands on the greenbelt north of the East Building of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It was built through the combined efforts of the Hiroshima Culture Council and the Construction Committee for a Monument to Sankichi Tooge, and unveiled on August 6, 1963. On the concrete base inlaid with black gems and stones, there is a trapezoidal black granite block, 70 centimeters high, 110 centimeters wide, and 50 centimeters thick, on the front of which is carved a poem by Sankichi Tooge, hand-written by Kazuko Miyake as well as an English translation of the poem by Miyao Oohara on the back.

When the bomb fell Sankichi Tooge was in his house in Midori-machi. In the ruins of the city he carried on literary activities through a youth movement, publishing a poetry magazine as well as collections of poems. In August 1951, he sent his A-bomb Poetry as a representative work of Japan to the Berlin Peace Conference. The poems created a great sensation all over the world.