Antinuclear Exhibition from Japan Shows at Urania, Berlin, Oct. 7-16

BERLIN, October 5, 2011 -

The exhibition “From a Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace,” which highlights the devastating effects of nuclear weapons and calls for a move from arms-based security to human security, opens on Friday Oct. 7, 2011, at Berlin’s Urania conference venue. It will be open to the public free of charge from 2pm to 10pm daily until Sunday Oct. 16.

Since its creation in 2007 as part of the People’s Decade of Action for Nuclear Abolition, which was initiated by the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) to boost global solidarity toward the abolition of nuclear weapons, the 36-panel exhibition has been shown in 27 countries. English, Italian, Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Nepali versions have been created to date.

Along with the exhibition, a film of first-person testimonies by women who were victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be continuously shown.

Co-organizers of this first showing in Germany are the Global Cooperation Council (GCC), International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Germany (IPPNW-Germany) and the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Buddhist association.

- Press conference, Urania, 11am, Thursday Oct. 6, 2011

SGI Executive Director for Peace Affairs Hirotsugu Terasaki from Japan will introduce the exhibition as a tool to galvanize grassroots action toward abolition of nuclear weapons. He will share a civil society perspective on the struggle to rid the world of nuclear weapons, and on how the Fukushima incident in March 2011 has provoked widespread debate and broader reflection within the Japanese anti-nuclear weapons movement as to whether humanity can coexist with nuclear energy in any form.  

- Exhibition opening ceremony, Marble Foyer, Urania, 3pm, Friday Oct. 7, 2011

Speakers will include SGI Vice President Hiromasa Ikeda and Prof. Dr. Hideto Sotobayashi, a survivor of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and former professor at the Max-Planck Institute. Ms. Xanthe Hall of IPPNW-Germany will also speak, along with Mr. Ramesh Jaura, Chair of the Global Cooperation Council.

In addition, two public lectures will be held at Urania’s Kleist Hall in association with the exhibition.

• Saturday Oct. 8, 2011, 4pm: Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsaecker, founder of the Wuppertal Institute, will speak on “Peacemaking: A European-Asian Alliance”
• Friday Oct. 14, 2011, 7.30pm: Prof. Dr. Dr. Horst-Eberhard Richter of IPPNW-Germany will speak on “Humanity and the Nuclear Threat”

Soka Gakkai International is a Buddhist association with 12 million members around the world. Information about SGI’s 50-year track record of efforts to promote nuclear weapons abolition and a culture of peace can be found at www.sgi.org/news/peace.html and www.peoplesdecade.org.

Urania is at An der Urania 17, 10787 Berlin Tel: +49-30-218-90-91 www.urania.de

Contact:
Kimiko Brummer
SGI-Germany
Tel: +49-17-1482-8048
www.sgi.org

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