Sadako Peace Day 2005

On Tuesday, 9 August 2005, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and La Casa De Maria Retreat Center held the 11th Annual Sadako Peace Day Ceremony commemorating the 60th 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.

This year’s Sadako Peace Day ceremony commemorated the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. The event included music, poetry and reflection. Sadako Peace Day is was held in conjunction with a larger international effort entitled Days of Remembrance and Action. This worldwide effort commemorated the 60th anniversaries of the bombings in an effort to underscore the message of the hibakusha (bomb survivors) that human beings and nuclear weapons cannot co-exist.

Dr. James Yamazaki was the featured speaker this year. Dr. Yamazaki is a renowned pediatrician who headed up the U.S. Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission's lab in Nagasaki following the bombing. He has continued to carry out research on the effects of radiation and is one of the world’s preeminent authorities on this subject, having worked with many of the survivors and their children.

Musicians included a student chamber quartet from the Music Academy of the West. Locally renowned musicians Sudama Mark Kennedy on Shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), Chris Judge on guitar and Rebecca Kleinmann on flute also performed. Poets included Santa Barbara’s Poet Laureate Barry Spacks, Perie Longo, Enid Osborn, John McAndrew and Toni Flynn.

Sadako Peace Garden was inaugurated in 1995 on the 50 th anniversary of the bombings. It is named for Sadako Sasaki, a two-year-old girl when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Ten years later she developed leukemia. Japanese legend holds that one’s wish will be granted upon folding 1,000 paper (origami) cranes. Sadako’s wish was to be well and to spread peace. She wrote of her cranes, “I will write peace on your wings, and you will fly all over the world.” Sadako folded 646 cranes before her dying. Her friends finished folding the cranes in her memory. Today, a statue of Sadako stands in Hiroshima Peace Park and the paper crane has become a global symbol of peace.

For more than 20 years, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has been committed to advancing initiatives to eliminate the nuclear weapons threat to all life, to fostering the global rule of law and to building an enduring legacy of peace through education and advocacy. It is a non-profit, non-partisan international organization with consultative status to the United Nations.

> 2005 Hiroshima Peace Declaration
> 2004 Nagasaki Peace Declaration

2005 Program of Events