Yoko Ono calls on people to show power of Hiroshima to the world+

HIROSHIMA, July 29 Kyodo -
Yoko Ono, a New York-based artist and the widow of former Beatle John Lennon, called on people to promote the power of Hiroshima -- a city rebuilt from ashes after being devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb in 1945 -- while in the city on Friday to receive the Hiroshima Art Prize.
''Let's show the people of the world the power of Hiroshima, which has risen from the point where it lost everything,'' Ono said at the awards ceremony held at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art.
Ono, 78, received the eighth Hiroshima Art Prize for her contributions to world peace through contemporary art. The triennial prize, established in 1989, has been given to other artists, including Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake and Chinese artist Cai Guoqiang.
Prior to the ceremony, Ono visited the Peace Memorial Museum located in the western Japanese city's Peace Memorial Park and said, ''I want the people of the world to know what kind of suffering Hiroshima has endured until now. We have the responsibility to see the calamity of atomic bombing.''
Ono also touched upon the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, saying, she is ''mortified'' to see Japan become the only country that has twice suffered massive damage caused by radiation, referring to this year's nuclear power plant disaster and the atomic bombings during World War II.
Ono, guided by the museum head Koichiro Maeda, toured the facility taking a look at displays of photos of radiation victims and exhibits including a stone imprinted with a shadow of a person exposed to the heat wave from the atomic bombing. She sometimes gasped in astonishment saying, ''It's awful.''
Before her visit to the museum, she offered flowers at the cenotaph for the atomic-bomb victims, also located in the park, and prayed for the victims.
Ono is a well known for being a peace activist in addition to her wide-ranging artistic activities, including painting and performances.
She has won a prize for her work and made speeches in support of the abolition of nuclear weapons when she attended the review conferences of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at the United Nations in 2005 and 2010.