Monument to Tamiki Hara

The monument to Tamiki Hara stands among the trees in front of the A-bomb Dome. The monument was first built at the site of Hiroshima Castle in November 1951. But due to the damage done to the ceramic plate on which Tamiki's poem was inscibed, it was rebuilt and moved to the present site in 1967. A year before poet Tamiki Hara was exposed to the A-bomb while in his parents' house in Nobori-cho, he had lost his beloved wife. The dropping of the A-bpmb threw this lonely poet into despair. He committed suicide by throwing him-self in front of a train in Tokyo in March 1951. He was 46 years old. The Japan Pen Club and the Hiroshima Literature Association organized " Tamiki Hara Connittee" and erected this monument to him. The monu-ment was designed by Prof. Yoshiro Taniguchi of Tokyo Technical Univer- sity.Ceramist Tokuro kato inscribed Tamiki's poem on a ceramic plate which is set in the front of the monument . The poem read: Engraved in stone long ago, Lost in the shifting sand, In the midst of a crumbling world, The vision one flower . On the back the words by Haruo Sato, dedicated to memory of Tamiki Hara, are engraved on a bronze plate. Those who visit this monu- ment are moved by this grief- striken poet who experienced the death of his wife and then lost the ability to trust human beings because of the dropping of the A-bomb. �@When the monument was moved to its present site,black granite used for the name plate.

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