In July 2024 Christian Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament received a grant from The Edith M Ellis 1985 Charitable Trust to support their visual arts campaign by funding an artist fee, a budget for materials, and transport costs.

Christian CND commissioned artist Leah Hislop to create a memorial artwork to mark the 80th anniversary of when the atomic bombs were detonated over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The site-specific work will be on display at Coventry Cathedral from August 2025.

The work titled ‘Hope Will Blossom From These Ashes’, was inspired by a quote from Tomoko Watanabe, co-founder of the Green Legacy Hiroshima; “I heard from many people at the time (after Hiroshima Bombing), that there was no colour in Hiroshima. There was only black, white or grey. Some people said that no plants would grow here for the next 75 years… At the time the trees looked like charcoal, a stick of charcoal…but on some of the trees green buds emerged…. When people saw that the buds had come out they thought they could survive as well, it was comforting. I can just imagine the vividness of the tiny green bud in that colourless world, it must have given people some comfort and hope”.

The 4m long sculpture depicts a charred branch, which is slowly blossoming. The charred part of the tree is constructed from thousands of carefully hand folded triangles by the artist herself and painted with crushed charcoal. Leah has incorporated origami cranes folded by volunteers for the 2024 Christian CND 1000 Cranes Campaign, the cranes have been arranged on top of and around the work to appear as flowers growing from the charred remains of a tree. Each crane symbolises an individual praying for peace.

As war rages on around the world, involving nuclear armed states, echoing the nuclear bomb survivor’s call of “never again” is more important than ever.

Coventry Cathedral has been delighted to host the work. Canon Mary Gregory speaking in November 2024 about how the themes of the work would fit with the Cathedral’s ethos, said “we’re a place that knows about bringing colour to a site of devastation”.