Through the Eyes of Children

The letter from the U.S. was addressed to "His Honor, the Mayor of Hiroshima," and began: "Greetings from Santa Fe . . . Our city lies in the shadow of Los Alamos, the birthplace of the atomic bomb." She was not writing to open old scars, continued Art Supervisor Susan B. Anderson, but to bring about better understanding between the two cities. One way to understanding, she thought, was through the eyes of children: why not let schoolchildren of Hiroshima and Santa Fe exchange paintings of the life around them?

Last week Supervisor Anderson's wish had come true.

With the help of Japanese-born Artist Chuzo Tamotzu, she was holding two art exhibits 6,000 miles apart. For Santa Fe, the show was an eye-opener. The U.S. kids had sent Hiroshima 125 youthfully American scenes: pictures of horses, cowboys, mesas, adobe huts decorated with strings of red chili peppers. The 125 pictures they got in return were startling, not because they were different, but because they were remarkably similar in style. They were amazingly modern and well done, showed only the faintest trace of traditional Oriental art. Instead of stylized cherry trees and dainty bridges, Hiroshima's kids had painted a big, bustling, newly rebuilt city, with humming docks, clattering trolleys, arm-waggling traffic cops. Instead of using the old formal brushwork, they splashed on lively patterns of blazing orange, green, blue, fire-engine red. Their lines were as bold and free-swinging as any U.S. progressive schoolteacher could wish.

The effect on Santa Fe's youngsters was electric. They gaped at the Japanese grade-scholars' craftsmanship, were surprised at how much the kids in the pictures looked like themselves. "Why, these don't seem foreign at all," said one nine-year-old. "They look like my friends." But they did wonder why there were no blond children in Japan, and wished they could read the Japanese writing in the pictures.

Santa Fe's adults liked the show, too, and plans were made to send the show to Los Alamos and Denver next. Back in their classrooms, Supervisor Anderson's pupils were hard at work on more pictures to swap with faraway children--in North Carolina, India and the Philippines.

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