A bell was rung in Hiroshima to mark the moment the bomb fell. From Sky News
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima at 8.15 a.m. on Monday, 6 August 1945 incinerated a city. Three days later a second bomb was detonated over Nagasaki. The two nuclear blasts resulted in the deaths of more than 200,000 people, mostly civilians. Now, 70 years later, in memorial ceremonies held all over the world to commemorate the occasion and pray for the dead, Buddhist monastics and lay people joined people of all faiths to appeal for peace.
At the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Buddhist monks and lay people joined city residents to attend a commemoration ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing and to remember those who lost their lives, before thousands of lanterns were released on the city’s Motoyasu River. People across Japan observed a minute’s silence, and in Hiroshima a bell tolled at 8.15 a.m. in a stirring reminder of the exact moment the bomb fell.
Buddhist monks at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. From The Standard
Near the industrial exhibition hall that has been preserved as a skeletal monument to the attack, Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe renewed Japan’s longstanding pledge to seek the global elimination of nuclear weapons. Dignitaries placed wreaths before the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park’s eternal flame, where a placard reads: “Rest in peace. We will not make the same mistake again.”
In Manhattan, New York, Buddhist leaders joined their Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim counterparts for a ceremony that included musicians and a survivor of the blast who now lives in New York State. At 7.15 p.m. New York time on 5 August—coinciding with the moment the nuclear blast occurred in Hiroshima seven decades ago—a peace bell was rung by attendees including Tomiko Morimoto West, 83, who lived through the bomb’s aftermath as a girl.
Paper cranes folded for peace. From Campaign Nonviolence
At 13 years old, she was working at a factory when she saw the American B-29 aircraft that dropped the bomb. She remembers a tremendous “flash” and debris falling from the sky. West recalled the fight she had that day with her mother, whom she never saw again.
“I am here. I survived and I live a peaceful life. I live on an airplane path (near her home in upstate New York) and when I look up and see the same kind of blue sky in August I don’t have to be afraid and that is peace,” said West. (The Japan Times)
For Reverend T. Kenjitsu Nakagaki, president of the Buddhist Council of New York and vice chairman of the Interfaith Center of New York, this was the 22nd time that he has led the annual ceremony. He emphasized that the state of the world made it crucial to reflect on the past to prevent further tragedy.
“The hibakusha [the Japanese word for the survivors of the bombs] are getting old and their average age is over 80. At the same time in Japan we are starting to forget lots of parts of the war,” said Rev. Nakagaki. (The Japan Times)
Campaign Nonviolence and Upaya Zen Center, meanwhile, are marking the anniversary with a program of events in Santa Fe and Los Alamos, New Mexico, from 5–9 August. The schedule includes a talk by Zen Buddhist Roshi Joan Halifax, who currently serves as Upaya Zen Center’s abbot and guiding teacher. The organizers called on people to fold paper cranes—a symbol of memorial of the bombing—which will be taken to Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the first nuclear bombs were created.
Near Albany, New York, Buddhist nun Sister Jun Yasuda, 67, led a walk for peace. Flickering lanterns, accompanied by drumming, prayers, and chants, illuminated the white dome of the Peace Pagoda in the woods of Rensselaer County.
“We will look up at the stars and moon and see how we’re all connected in one universe,” said Sister Yasuda, who has walked thousands of miles for peace. With each step, she beat a drum and chanted the mantra: “Na-Mu-Myo-Ho-Ren-Ge-Kyo,” meaning, “One Earth, one sky, entirely at peace.” (Times Union)
Sister Jun Yasuda, right, near the Grafton Peace Pagoda. From Times Union
Sister Yasuda, a native of Tokyo, is a nun in the Buddhist order of Nipponzan Miyohoji, which revived the old custom of constructing Peace Pagoda shrines—open to all visitors as a place for contemplation and prayer for peace—after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
Sister Yasuda and members of her order led volunteers who labored for three years to construct this 100-foot-tall, 130-foot-wide, 1,200-ton sacred stupa in the Rensselaer County woods, which was completed in 1993. A circular walkway reveals alcoves with bas-relief sculptures of the Buddha’s spiritual journey and messages of peace. Nearby is a Buddhist temple and a room where Sister Yasuda lives in monastic simplicity. The pagoda is one of about 90 that the order has built around the world in the past 70 years.
Sister Yasuda has no interest in apportioning blame for the bombings: “If our country didn’t wage war, maybe it never would have happened. We just focus on building peace. We’re such a small planet. Everyone has to work together to save it. We don’t need any more wars.” (Times Union)