Cartoon, 'To the citizens of Japan and Sendai'

This cartoon was drawn by Christchurch artist Henry Sunderland as a creative response to the first anniversary of the devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami which struck offshore Sendai, Japan on 11 March 2011.

Flower power

Henry had originally drawn the cartoon for the anniversary of the Canterbury earthquake of 22 February 2012, which had seen thousands of people decorating road cones throughout Christchurch and overseas with flowers.

Midori Saito, a former art student of Henry's when she was an exchange student in Christchurch in the 1990s, now lives in Sendai-shi, Miyagi, Japan (Sendai was the nearest city to the epicentre of the Japan earthquake). She wanted to share the road cone idea in Japan, and so translated Henry's cartoon into Japanese in preparation for the anniversary on 11 March 2012.

The spread of Henry's original idea illustrates the bonds of support and remembrance which have flowed between Japan and New Zealand since the 2011 earthquakes.

Award-winning

Henry received a civic award for his work at the Christchurch Earthquake Civic Awards held on 18 December 2012.