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"Nie wieder Hiroshima" flag (Austria)

Political flags

"Hiroshima" flag

by João Madureira 16 August 1998

Here is a flag that was seen at an anti-nuclear demonstration in Vienna. The lines on the dove are intentional. I believe that "NIE WIEDER HIROSHIMA" means "NO MORE HIROSHIMA". For the original (sent by Phil Nelson) click here
João Madureira 16 August 1998

One observation: the dove is origami, from the tradition of releasing doves at the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. Also, I think people make the origami doves as well.
John Lindert 22 August 1998

The origami dove story ... or paper cranes, as they are sometimes called. Origami, of course, is an old Japanese tradition, laden culturally with more than just the clever paper-folding trick that Westerners see in it. The story is told of a little girl in Hiroshima. Her mother had lived in Hiroshima when the bomb went off there. Her child was born with defects, crippling, etc. and died rather painfully. She was trying to make 1,000 of these paper cranes, in response to a Japanese legend that one who does so will have her problems cured. She died before she finished 1,000, but her classmates made the rest and put them at the ground-zero memorial site several years ago. The cultural image includes peace, healing and things of that nature, so the image of the paper crane carries these ideas. It's fitting that it is on a flag ... flags are so highly symbolic, too. I suspect the rainbow idea also echoes the peace image of that flag design.
William E. Dunning 22 August 1998

My natural reading of the rainbow is the covenant of God with human race that He will never again allow the world-wide destruction (Biblical story of Noah). I guess it is appropriate for the case. I do not know how much the Japanese would appreciate this explanation, but Austrians should be familiar with it. (BTW, it is written on the flag "never again"!)
Zeljko Heimer 24 August 1998

See also: