Patrick Comerford
Today marks the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. I visited Hiroshima when I was a student in Japan in 1979, and for over 40 years I took part in Irish CND’s Hiroshima Day commemorations in Merrion Park, Dublin. This evening, Charlotte and I hope to attend the annual Hiroshima Day commemorations at the Japanese Peace Pagoda beside Willen Lake in Milton Keynes, a ceremony we have been attending for three years now.
The Anglican Pacifist Fellowship and Christian CND are also marking Hiroshima Day with an online vigil at 8 pm this evening.
Ronald Rae’s sculpture ‘Hiroshima’ (1988) is in the grounds of theJapanese Buddhist Temple beside Willen Lake. The temple was built by Japanese Buddhis monks who are devoted to promoting peace and nuclear disarmament, and the sculpture was donated to the temple in 2007.
‘Hiroshima’ is one of three pieces of sculpture by the Scottish sculptor and artist Ronald Rae in the parks in Milton Keynes. The work is carved from granite in memory of the people who were killed by the atomic bombing at Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 and warns of the tragedy of nuclear war.
Ronald Rae made this sculpture ‘Hiroshima’ in 1988 from Scottish granite that is 470 million years old. It measures 4 x 3 x 3 ft and weighs 2.00 tons. The figure twists in agony and looks up, saying: ‘Let this never happen again.’
The sculpture ‘Hiroshima’ or ‘Hiroshima Departed’ was bought from the Ronald Rae Exhibition at Milton Keynes in 1995-1999 and was donated to the Temple by the art consultant Edna Eguchi Read (1929-2012). She was a well-known pacifist and was once described as an ‘irresistible force and champion of public art in Milton Keynes’.
Edna Read was instrumental in many of the city’s cultural organisations, including the Milton Keynes Gallery and Theatre Company, Aim Gallery, the Public Arts Trust and the Sculpture Walk for Emigré Artists at Bletchley Park. She died tragically at the age of 83 in a car crash in October 2012. Her funeral service was held in the Church of Christ the Cornerstone, Milton Keynes.
The temple at Willen Lake is an appropriate and apt location for Rae’s ‘Hiroshima’. Every year on Hiroshima Day the Buddhist monks and nuns of the Nipponzan Myohoji (Japan Buddha Sangha) organise this memorial service at the Pagoda, which includes lighting candles around this sculpture and floating lanterns on Willen Lake.
The plaque beside the sculpture reads:
‘Hiroshima
‘Ronald Rae 1988
‘Ronald Rae’s hand-carved 470 million year old Scottish Granite Memorial does not invite admiration of heroism or self sacrifice for others.
‘This nameless, pathetic, scarcely human form conveys only the appalling history of innocent men, women and children suddenly extinguished by nuclear bombs. Ronnie is also remembering those today who die in the worlds continuing conflicts.’
Ronald Rae’s two other sculptures in public places in Milton Keynes are his ‘Animals in War’ (1998) in a hollow below the Belvedere in Campbell Park, and the ‘Cuddling Couple’ outside Milton Keynes Central Station.
‘Animals in War’ was the sculptor’s gift to the people of Milton Keynes in 2015 in memory of Edna Read, who was an active promoter of public art in the new city. It symbolises the aftermath of war and is a poignant memorial to all animals who died in wars, in particular horses who died in their millions in World War I. The soldier in the sculpture is missing half an arm and is wearing a gas mask, also referring to the horrors of chemical warfare.
The sculpture in Kemnay granite was previously on loan to Bletchley Park. The Public Arts Trust, Milton Keynes, working with partners Bletchley Park, the Parks Trust and Milton Keynes Council moved the large, 6 ton sculpture across Milton Keynes, and it was unveiled in Campbell Park on 30 July 2015 by Dr Charles Robert Saumarez Smith, secretary and chief executive of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Rae’s ‘Cuddling Couple’ outside Milton Keynes Central Station was bought by the Commissions for the New Towns after a major exhibition of his work in Milton Keynes in 1995-1999.
Ronald Rae was born in Ayr in 1946. His works are entirely hand-carved in granite and over the course of 58 years he carved 58 large granite monoliths, many of which are in public and private collections throughout the UK.
Rae’s largest work to date is the 20 tonne ‘Lion of Scotland.’ His sculptures have been exhibited in Milton Keynes (1995-1999), Regent’s Park, London (1999-2002), the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, and Holyrood Park, Edinburgh (2006-2007).
His eight-tonne sculpture ‘Fish’ was installed on the waterfront at Cramond in 2009 after a successful fundraising campaign by the Cramond Community.
Many of his granite sculptures in public places have Biblical themes, including five sculptures depicting the ‘Tragic Sacrifice of Christ’ in Alloway, ‘Abraham’ at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, the ‘Return of the Prodigal’ in Perth, the ‘Good Samaritan’ in Glenrothes, and his ‘Celtic Cross’ at Erdington Railway Station, Birmingham. His ‘Fallen Christ’, outside the MacLeod Centre on the island of Iona, is to the memory of Jim Hughes, a member of the Iona Community.
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