On Friday, 6 August 2004, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and La Casa De Maria Retreat Center held the 10 th Annual Sadako Peace Day Ceremony commemorating the 59 th Anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with music, poetry and reflections. The ceremony took place at the Sadako Peace Garden at the La Casa de Maria Retreat Center.

After a welcome from La Casa de Maria Executive Director Jim Villanueva, Mayor of Santa Paula, Dr. Gabino Aguirre and Santa Barbara-resident Ron Dexter offered reflections and inspiration. Mayor Aguirre is a member of the Mayors for Peace and active in their Emergency Campaign to eliminate nuclear weapons by the year 2020. Ron Dexter is a member of Veterans for Peace, who served in the Korean War, and has been active in the project Arlington West in Santa Barbara, which portrays the loss of American lives in the Iraq war.

Sudama Mark Kennedy and Bill Aikele played original compositions on the Sitar, Koto and Shakuhachi. A Young Artists Trio from the Music Academy of the West – made up of Abigail McKee on flute, Yumi Cho on violin and Sarah Koo on cello – played several classical compositions. Original poetry was read by Bettina Barrett, “Toward Peace”; Barbara Bates, “The Cradle”; Chella Courington, “All Things are Born in Darkness”; Mary Rose Betten, “Yielding Earth”; and Paul Willis, “Apocalypse.”

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation President David Krieger offered closing remarks at the soulful commemoration. He shared a poem he received on 6 August 2004 from a poet in Tucson, Arizona, Karma Tenzing Wangchuk:

Hiroshima Day –
in my heart,
I release a thousand cranes

Dr. Krieger concluded, “I hope that today we can all release a thousand cranes in our hearts and in our world. We are powerful beyond our imaginations, and the power of a thousand cranes released in many human hearts can change our world.”

The Sadako Peace Garden was inaugurated by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and La Casa de Maria on 6 August 1995, the 50 th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. It is a tribute to Sadako Sasaki, and all those who strive for peace and a world free of nuclear weapons.

Sadako Sasaki, a young survivor of Hiroshima, developed leukemia at age twelve, ten years after the atomic bombing. In Japan it is said that if one folds 1,000 paper cranes, one’s wish will come true. Sadako began folding paper cranes to attain her wish to be well and to achieve world peace, but she died with only 646 cranes folded. Her classmates finished folding cranes after her death. Today, a statue of Sadako stands in the Peace Memorial park in Hiroshima, and the origami paper crane has become an international symbol of peace.

> The 2004 City of Hiroshima Peace Declaration
> 2004 Nagasaki Peace Declaration