A coalition of community groups, churches and local businesses are presenting “From Hiroshima to Hope,” Seattle’s commemoration of the victims of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and all violent conflicts, Thursday on the northwest shore of Green Lake, near the Bathhouse Theater.
The free event begins at 6:30 p.m. with music, poetry and paper crane folding. Japanese and Sikh calligraphers will write messages on lanterns for participants. The lantern floating ceremony will happen just after 9 p.m.
Here’s a picture from a previous year’s event.
Peace Action of WA President Fred Miller, a member of the group’s planning committee, said, “if you study it by the headlines, war is about politicians and generals. If you study war by the battle, it is about soldiers, but if you measure who suffers and who dies, war is overwhelmingly about civilians. The politicians, generals and soldiers have their statues, holidays and memorials. For the billions of civilian victims of war, we’ll float lanterns on Green Lake.”
According to Miller, this event has been the largest commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima outside of Japan. Because it’s on a weeknight, he expects about 1,000 people, but they’ve had as many as 2,000.
[Photo Credit: From Hiroshima to Hope]
