Today is Hiroshima Day, the anniversary of the day the Atomic Bob was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945. Sadako Sasaki was 2 years old when the bomb was dropped. When she was 11, she was diagnosed with leukemia, the "Atom Bomb Disease". She died a year later.

School children throughout Japan collected money to build a monument to Sadako and the other children of Japan killed by the Bomb. In 1958 a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane was erected in the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. At the foot of that statue is this inscription:

"This is our cry, This is our prayer, Peace in the world".


In 1990 at the age of 93, Dr. Floyd Schmoe, a peace activist, built the Seattle Peace Park with the Hiroshima Peace Prize of $5000 he recieved in 1988.

Remember Sadako and the paper cranes, and strive for Peace.

Tinman

Hiroshima Day is this Saturday, August 6. "From Hiroshima to Hope" is a memorial held every August 6 since 1985 at Seattle's Green Lake for the victims of the atomic bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and for victims of violence everywhere. At dusk paper lanterns with ligted candes will be floated across Green Lake.

Here are a few of the Hiroshima Day events in the USA.

Tinman

The bombings were horrific events. The cover story of the August 1 issue of Time magazine was about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The bombings were supposedly a last resort to end the war with Japan. It was said that Japan would have never surrendered, and in fact their military leader wanted to fight to the death.

Regarding the Japanese, a story on the news this week noted how much more honest they are than Americans. Tokyo has a huge central lost & found, where wallets filled with (a total of) millions of dollars are turned in each year, along with a multitude of other items.

Japanese children are raised to honor what we call "The Golden Rule."

Considering that I live in a "Blue" state, and in a very "Blue" city, I'm saddened that there is no memorial activity in Portland, even though there IS a permanent Japanese memorial along the Willamette River waterfront.

When I was seven years old, my father, a Navy man, was transferred to Port Hueneme, California, and we lived nearby for several years. Many of the local farmers were Japanese. Their lands had been confiscated druing their "relocation," our euphamism for being placed in a concentration camp. After the war, they quietly went about working together, pooling their resources, and buying back their own land. We could all learn a few things from them!

Yes, war is very sad. I am reading about the Vietnam War right now, and sometimes I think that humanity just will never learn from past mistakes.

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Regarding the Japanese, a story on the news this week noted how much more honest they are than Americans.

I just hate to make a generalization like this. I consider honesty to be an individual characteristic, and an important one, but not a cultural characteristic.

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Originally posted by Asa Lovejoy:
... I'm saddened that there is no memorial activity in Portland, even though there IS a permanent Japanese memorial along the Willamette River waterfront.

I wish I had seen this site earlier. It says there was a commemoration from 6-7 p.m. tonight at Japanese Historical Plaza in Waterfront Park in Portland, OR. There are observances in both red and blue states, in the U.K., and in other countries throughout the first half of August. Omaha, Nebraska had theirs Aug 1-3 and Denver, CO will have one the 15th. Many places will have commemorations on Aug. 9, the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki.

Tinman

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I wish I had seen this site earlier. It says there was a commemoration from 6-7 p.m. tonight at Japanese Historical Plaza in Waterfront Park in Portland, OR.

I wish I had too! Well, at least they DID have one, well-publicised or not!