A clear and beautiful blue sky, cicadas singing and a peaceful morning, broken by the detonation of an atomic bomb dropped high above Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. Three days later, another morning was shattered by a second atomic bomb over Nagasaki. The death toll of 150,000–246,000 lives lost in an instant and over the months and years that followed.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Two local events will commemorate the anniversary—on Aug. 6 (8 a.m.) at the Fresno State Peace Garden and Aug. 9 (10:30 a.m.) at the Shinzen Friendship Garden in Woodward Park. The Human Rights Coalition of the Central Valley (HRCCV) and the Central California District Council of the Japanese American Citizens League (CCDC JACL) are organizing both events.
Other community partners, city and county leaders, national figures and religious organizations are supporters and participants in this year’s events. Dr. Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, president of Fresno State, will share a message at the Aug. 6 event.
This is the fifth consecutive year that the HRCV and the CCDC JACL have partnered for the two commemorative events.
The Fresno State Peace Garden, established in 1990 by Dr. Sudarshan Kapoor (also the founder of the HRCCV), is the site of statues of Mahatma Gandhi, César Chávez, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jane Addams and Nelson Mandela. Every year, strings of folded paper cranes (origami tsuru) are strewn around and near the statues. The Hiroshima commemoration event is held in front of the Gandhi statue.
The crane, or tsuru, in Japanese culture has long been a symbol of good fortune and success. There is a Japanese legend that a wish will be granted when 1,000 origami tsuru are folded.
There is the story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who was ill from exposure to the Hiroshima atomic bombing. Her goal was to fold 1,000 origami tsuru so her wish of becoming healthy again would come true; she folded only 644 before she died. Her classmates folded the remaining origami tsuru in her honor, and to this day Sasaki and her story are a symbol of hope.
There is a statue of her in the Hiroshima Peace Park, and every year schoolchildren from all over the world fold 1,000 origami tsuru and send them to Japan. In the same tradition, Fresno Buddhist Temple members, United Japanese Christian Church members and, this year, fifth-grade students from Ann B. Leavenworth Elementary School have folded several thousand origami tsuru. These origami tsuru will be on display throughout the two events.
In 2020, a project was introduced via the One Sunny Day Initiatives (OSDI), in collaboration with the Green Legacy Hiroshima Peace Tree Project, to bring 35 camphor saplings to the Central Valley. The seeds, originally collected from a camphor tree that survived the atomic blast (1,120 meters from the hypocenter, at Hiroshima Castle), were cultivated to produce saplings in Oregon, the home of the OSDI.
Dr. Miho Yoshida, a colleague of Dr. Hideko Tamura-Snider (a Hiroshima bombing survivor and founder of the OSDI), initiated the conversation about a project to bring the saplings to the Central Valley. The 35 sapling camphor trees were planted at Fresno State near the Peace Garden, the Shinzen Friendship Garden, the Fresno Buddhist Temple and California Health Sciences University.
The OSDI, along with the Green Legacy Hiroshima Peace Tree Project, has planted saplings across Oregon and five other states. The camphor saplings at the Shinzen Friendship Garden include a special bonsai arrangement in the Clark Bonsai Collection and a full-sized camphor planted on the garden grounds.
The surviving camphor trees in Hiroshima are known as the hibaku jumoku, or survivor trees, representing the resilience of life, hope and peace.
Youth are encouraged to participate in the commemorations, and Buddhist youth ministers from the Fresno Buddhist Temple and volunteers from Gakko Gives in Parlier are participating.
The HRCCV is a collective of faith leaders, scholars and community activists and organizers who are committed to educating the greater Valley community about human rights. The Japanese American Citizens League is the nation’s oldest Asian American civil rights organization.
