Authority (I)
CSI (the Chugoku Shikoku Internet Council), the organization responsible
for constructing and maintaining the site, is affiliated with local
government and the university community in Hiroshima, and therefore
represents an "official"
viewpoint in this respect. As for its authority, the site conceives
its presentation in terms of moral agency, allowing the accumulated evidence
to document what has transpired. To ensure that their message remains clear,
the designers of the site contextualize many of the
photographs with commentary, specifcally warning potential viewers that
the content to follow may be "disturbing."
In addition, multiple images of a crane are
placed adjacent to the table of contents, providing a conventional symbol
of peace (to Japanese at least) to reinforce the collective goal.
Within the list of contents, the documentary evidence is carefully framed, preceded and followed by selected texts: the site opens with a message (the second item in the table of contents) directed to Japanese readers (although the content is surprising), and closes with personal mesages from the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In effect, this device brackets the entire work, offering it as a plea for future good will among nations. Although there are many contributors to the site, its authority, ultimately, is singular, structured to render a horrific event in which the Japanese people were victims, the force of which cannot be questioned.