All Published Posts
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“Where Everything Started”: The Peace Garden in Minneapolis
On Nov. 23, 2024, JoAnn Blatchley, president of the Saint Paul-Nagasaki Sister City Committee, and I visited the Peace Garden in Lyndale Park in Minneapolis. Blatchley is a retired teacher and peace activist. As we entered the Peace Garden, she said, “This is where everything started.” She was talking about her entry into peace activism…
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Guest Essay: The Evanston Township High School Peace Messengers Club
When I was in my sophomore year of high school, I met survivors and descendants of survivors of the atomic bombings of Nagasaki at my church. Their visit to Evanston was coordinated by Hirokazu Miyazaki, a professor at Northwestern University and a Peace Correspondent of Nagasaki. I almost missed listening to their talk, but my…
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Fragments of the Past: Hiroshima’s Living Memory
It is visually hard to tell that a bomb was ever dropped from a trolley ride through the streets of Hiroshima. Upon arriving at the Genbaku Dome-mae station, the temporary illusion of a bomb-free history dissolves. The plethora of photos that exist of the Genbaku Dome, the only structure left standing after the world’s first…
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Nuclear Legacies in the Northwest
On Sept. 27, 2024, I participated in a tour, organized by the Department of Energy, of the Hanford Site’s B-Reactor, the world’s first plutonium production reactor of this scale. The tour group met at the Hanford Visitor Center in Richland, WA, and traveled by bus to the Hanford Site. Our tour guide was a nuclear…
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Peace from Nagasaki
日本語版は下をご覧ください。 On Sunday, November 3rd, I attended a special concert of the Nagasaki Symphony Orchestra, a civic orchestra originally founded in 1970 with the support of Nagasaki Prefecture and Nagasaki City to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the opening of the Port of Nagasaki. In the same year, Nagasaki City commissioned renowned composer Dan Ikuma…
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Nuclear Waste Scholar Series: Making the Unseen Visible
The Hanford Nuclear Reservation was responsible for producing plutonium for the Manhattan Project, a production which created large amounts of waste that still remain at the site and contaminate the surrounding environment. In response to these lingering environmental dangers, The Hanford Challenge, a non-profit organization dedicated to building accountability for cleanup at the Hanford Site,…
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On Being Inspired and Transformed by Hibakusha
日本語版は下をご覧ください。 The wonderful news of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese national organization of hibakusha, or survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, reached me while I was with Archbishop Emeritus Takami Mitsuaki, an in utero survivor of the bombing of Nagasaki, on the evening of Oct…
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Together in Light: A Chicago Commemoration of the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 79 Years Later
On August 6th, 2024, I had the opportunity to attend the Toro Nagashi, or lantern ceremony, organized by The Japanese Arts Foundation in the Garden of the Phoenix in Jackson Park. A significant portion of the 579 pre-registered attendees participated in lighting lanterns and releasing them on the water, with personal messages attached creating a…
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Nuclear Threats in Different Times
How to Find Hope in the Midst of Increasing Danger The Doomsday Clock, published annually by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, has been set at 90 seconds to midnight since 2023. This clock, in which “midnight” symbolizes the end of the world as we know it, has served as a powerful reminder of the…
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City Diplomacy and Nuclear Policy: How U.S. Cities Can Acknowledge Their Own Nuclear Legacies
Every August, the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki reaffirm their commitments to peace and eliminating nuclear weapons through annual commemorations of the atomic bombings. Currently, city leaders around the world–– including many in the U.S.––are deeply engaged in addressing global challenges such as climate change, migration and refugee crises, and pandemics. Yet the pathways for…