32 Statue of Peace "New Leaves"
Completed : May 9, 1966
Established by : Hiroshima South District Rotary Club
This monument is engraved with the following words of Dr. Hideki Yukawa: "O god of evil, do not come this way again. This place is reserved for those who pray for peace." ("God of evil" means a god who brings calamity and bad luck.)
When Dr. Yukawa, developer of the Neutron Theory, received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his achievement, he became the first Japanese recipient of a Nobel Prize. Dr. Yukawa was shocked by the US test of a hydrogen bomb in 1954 and thereafter continually appealed for the abolition of nuclear weapons and war. He sponsored for example, the Conference on Science and World Affairs (Pugwash Conference).
Dr. Yukawa said, "I am proud of the search for truth and am confident of my abilities. I worked for that search my entire life. I have no regrets. But when I heard what happened in August 6, I knew that scientists must bear the responsibility for what occurred."
The statue of a child standing next to a deer was made by sculptor Katsuzo Entsuba who was born in Mitsugi-cho, Hiroshima Prefecture.
