At 8:15 AM on August 6th, the announcer at the 70th Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony asked us to observe a moment of silence. It was precisely then, 70 years earlier, that Little Boy fell from Enola Gay and turned the city into a hell zone. Above an army of cicadas chirping away, we all bowed our heads as officials rang the Peace Bell, each gong pushing us to reflect on what happened then, what is going on now, and what we can hope for in the future with respects to creating a world free of nuclear weapons and at peace.
The Mayor of Hiroshima provided the annual Peace Declaration, doves were released into the crowd, representatives from Hiroshima schools announced the annual Commitment to Peace, all before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took the podium. With his strong handed push for legislation rescinding Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution to remilitarize, all eyes and ears were hoping to hear something new but only received a similar line that other PMs have used stating that it is Japan’s duty to push for a nuclear free world. The Governor of Hiroshima and a representative of UN Security General Ban Ki-moon delivered remarks before the audience joined in the Hiroshima Peace Song to end the ceremony.
However, before this all occurred, a small group of peace protestors outside the Atomic Bomb Dome brought out the police and security forces en masse from the night before the ceremony and into the morning. These protestors pointed out the irony that PM Abe would be speaking about peace and nuclear non-proliferation since it is unclear how far Japan will go should it remilitarize. Many yelled to give peace a chance. Some suggested that should Japan become a military power, it will want a nuclear weapon in the same way other nations surrounded by nuclear powers want them.
Walking through the Peace Park after the ceremony, attendees gathered around to pay their respects at various monuments made specifically for groups of people who perished in Hiroshima, like the Monument Dedicated to Korean Victims and Survivors, and many others queued up to walk to the main altar where the names of the victims and survivors who have passed away is updated and kept. I found myself remembering my previous Peace Memorial Ceremonies and the summer I spent working at the Hiroshima YMCA’s International Youth Peace Seminar in 2000 as I walked up to the Cenotaph to say a prayer. I remember praying then as I did today for there to be fewer nations who possess nuclear weapons; for a President of the USA to come to Hiroshima and deliver remarks rather than send the Ambassador to Japan or other official to sit in the crowd; and for conflicts around the world to be handled through diplomacy rather than military strength. This year, I added a few prayers that Prime Minister Abe stops his current push to remilitarize Japan, that Iran never be able to arm a nuclear weapon, that President Obama can in his final months in office take bigger strides on decreasing the nuclear stockpiles of the USA, Russia and other nations.
Here’s to hoping that the next time I come to Hiroshima, I’ll be able to remove some of those prayers from my list because we as a global community have done more to create the world that we want to live in free from the fear of nuclear weapons and devastating armed conflicts.
Tom Nakanishi is a political consultant in Los Angeles who has worked for President Barack Obama, Senator Mazie Hirono and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. He attended Yale University and Harvard Kennedy School where he concentrated in American Studies and political advocacy and leadership.
The UCLA Asian American Studies Center would like to thank Tom Nakanishi for sharing his reflections and photos from the 70th Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony with us!
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