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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, August 6, 2005

Local, Japanese students mark atomic blast

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Retired Bishop Yoshiaki Fujitani from Honpa Hongwanji Mission was the first to ring the Peace Bell at the Izumo Taishakyo Mission in Honolulu yesterday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing at Hiroshima. Students from Japan and the Honolulu YMCA also rang the bell during the ceremony.

Jeff Widener | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Peace floated on the wind yesterday, carried in song, prayer and the tolling of a bell, as a small gathering marked the 60th anniversary of one of history's most horrific acts of war — the atomic blast over Hiroshima.

The ceremony at the Peace Bell outside the Izumo Taishakyo Mission on Kukui Street was timed to coincide with a similar — but much larger — ceremony taking place in Hiroshima. About 130 people attended the simple Honolulu ceremony.

Nine high school students from Hiroshima joined 60 children from the YMCA of Ho-nolulu to mark the anniversary, something that has been done for 45 years as part of a cultural exchange program.

The children hung 1,000 folded cranes beside the bell and sang "Let There Be Peace on Earth" and "We Are the World."

Yukiyoshi Takei of the Hiroshima YMCA spoke of the death and suffering caused by the bomb. More than 140,000 people died instantly or in the months that followed the blast.

"We, the students of Hiroshima, think it is important that the world not forget the horror of nuclear war," he said on behalf of his small group. "There is no happiness to be gained from war."

City managing director Jeff Coelho looked at the children seated at the gathering and challenged them to make the world a better place.

"What occurred 60 years ago should never be forgotten," he said. "And there is an important word you should take home with you, a word not mentioned a lot by the media. Peace. Peace can happen."

Francis Oda, a senior pastor of New Life Church and a descendant of immigrants from Hiroshima, added another word to their vocabulary: love.

"Love is an action verb," he said. "It is something we have to do in order to participate in it."

Retired Bishop Yoshiaki Fujitani of the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawai'i was the first to ring the Peace Bell yesterday.

"Be peace," he told those gathered before him. "In other words, not only think, say and do peace, but live and be. I think it is important for us to think in those terms."

Then with a tug of a white braided rope, Fujitani rang the bell. The single note was loud, but not long.

Then the children stepped forth, ringing the bell in pairs, and the toll for peace grew louder and longer.