In Mr. Tange's letters, we find references indicating that he recommended Isamu Noguchi, an American sculptor of Japanese ancestry, as the designer for the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims.
Professor Tange felt that the cenotaph was akin to a work of art. This is why he asked Mr. Noguchi to create the design. In his design, Mr. Noguchi tried to express the horrific death wrought by the bombing, symbolized by the exposed organs of the human body. His appointment, however, was rejected by the people supervising the project on the grounds that “Isamu Noguchi is a citizen of the country that dropped the atomic bomb.” As a result, Professor Tange himself designed the cenotaph, which gently shelters the stone chest in which the register of the dead is held. The cenotaph manifests the “sense of remorse” borne by the survivors, who felt utterly helpless to save the victims.