Its chief concern today is to avoid being blamed when the mushroom clouds appear in the sky.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Soldiers of peace

It is this new work past the manga-style characters and smiling flowers, the giant oval silver Buddha and the grim mushroom clouds that viewers will experience Mr Murakami at his most spiritual and also most human.

ECONOMIST: Murakami in the Middle East: Hundred-metre dash | The

And sailing close to the mushroom clouds, evacuating islanders who'd felt the ash rain down from a colonial power half a world away, was again a sure-fire way to win in the court of public opinion - even if the French government had not guaranteed itself a defeat by its cack-handed resort to force in Auckland.

BBC: Greenpeace Rainbow sails again