2013. 11.18 - 21

Joint Exhibition of Hiromi Inayoshi & Karipbek Kuyukov

In June 2013, I received a letter with a leaflet from his Excellency the Ambassador of 
Republic of Kazakhstan. It was a request for collaboration between the Picture Book without 
Pictures Project which I lead in attempt to establish true peace and the world without 
nuclear weapons or wars, and the Atom Project, the national project of Kazakhstan aiming at 
permanent abolition of nuclear testing and complete nuclear disarmament.

I can never forget the shock I got when I saw the leaflet of the Atom Project. 
We, Japanese, are the only people who know the horror of nuclear weapons by heart, because, 
as you know, the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki took the life of 400,000 people 
literally in a flash. However, as we turn to look at the whole world, we find many countries still 
keep up nuclear weapons, even though they know its threat. They have tested those 
weapons thousands of times. But, we have never been informed of this fact and have lived our 
daily life without knowing how these deadly testing have affected people, 
nature and the whole earth.


“Day after day, nuclear radiation has kept poisoning us, our steppe, rivers, 
and lakes of Karaganda in Eastern Kazakhstan, slowly killing all the life in the region. Nuclear 
poison destroyed the life and health of more than 1.5 million people who lived close to 
the nuclear testing site. Nuclear testing still affects us strongly today.”

“As a global impact of nuclear testing, people of somewhere between 2 million and 
6 million have died and up to 20 million suffer serious diseases as cancers, and congenital 
disabilities.”

From the leaflet of the Atom Project


Now, Mr. Karipbek Kuyukov, the Honorary Ambassador of the Atom Project, 
tells us, Japanese, what have been really happening as the consequence of nuclear testing. 
Through his armless figure, his paintings, his art ………

As a peace conductor and an artist myself, I am very proud of introducing him to
Japan and organizing a joint exhibition of my Picture Book without Pictures Project and his 
Atom Project in Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nothing could give me more pleasure, 
if an encounter and efforts for peace of two artists could be of any help for 
the world to progress for the better. 


Hiromi Inayoshi

Peace conductor
Graphic designer and artist