FUKUSHIMA -- Fukushima Mayor Hiroshi Kohata has announced the city will promptly remove from a municipal facility a controversial statue of a child wearing what looks like a nuclear radiation suit, in response to public criticism that the statue that gives the misperception that the city is contaminated.
At a press conference held Tuesday, the mayor also said, "I sincerely apologize to people who have been saddened or discomforted" by the statue.
The statue, named "Sun Child," is a 6.2-meter-tall work created by artist Kenji Yanobe. It shows a little boy clad in what looks like a yellow nuclear radiation suit. An instrument for measuring radioactivity attached to his chest displays "000."
The statue was installed in front of an educational facility called the Com-Com Children's Creative Learning Center by the Fukushima city government. It was unveiled less than a month ago.
In explaining why the city decided to remove the statue, the mayor said, "We've judged that it is too difficult to continue to display such a controversial work as a symbol of the desire for reconstruction" from the damage caused by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent nuclear disaster.
Concerning the future of the statue, the mayor said, "Because the city lacks a [municipal] art museum, it is difficult to secure a place to display the work where it won't upset those who don't wish to see it."
The city intends to disassemble and remove the statue as soon as the necessary preparations are complete. It will store the work at a municipal facility while discussing what to do with it next.
Since unveiling the statue on Aug. 3, the city has been flooded with opinions critical of the work, including "It may cause the misperception that Fukushima was so contaminated people needed to wear protective clothing here," and "Just seeing a protective suit makes me feel sad." In response, the city was compelled to consider how to handle the matter.
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