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 space for people from all over the Chicago area, representing various backgrounds and cultures, to process the loss of beloved family and friends. The ceremony also commemorated the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 79 years ago.

Toro Nagashi, meaning “floating lanterns,” is a Buddhist tradition that marks the end of the Obon season, a summer holiday celebrating and honoring the spirits of ancestors. Toro Nagashi can be a small family affair or a larger event that honors victims of tragedies, such as natural disasters and war. The ceremony begins when spirits start to re-enter the spirit world, guided by candle-lit lanterns (“Toro”). The floating lights serve as a visual representation of the spirits’ journey back to the other world.

The event took place next to Yoko Ono’s “Skylanding,” an installation of twelve giant steel lotus flower petals. Constructed in 2016, Ono described the artwork at the unveiling ceremony as the “place where the sky and earth meet and create a seed to learn about the past and come together to create a future of peace and harmony, with nature and each other.” This artwork set the tone for the evening as people of all ages gathered to begin decorating, bringing to life the idea of “coming together,” as expressed in the plaque introducing the sculpture.

The event kicked off with lantern decorating — tables were set up with markers, stickers, and paper for participants. As I decorated my own lantern, I observed attendees around me writing in both English and Japanese. One woman was folding origami cranes, a nod to the Peace Crane Project and the Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima, where students from around the world folded cranes as symbols of peace. Some attendees inscribed inspiring messages of peace, others wrote only the names of their loved ones, and some expressed apologies. One man I spoke with wrote on his lantern: “I’m sorry we failed you.”

After decorating our lanterns, we lined up and walked around the Japanese Garden as the sun fully set. Attendees chose spots along the pond to place their lanterns into the water, cathartically releasing our pleas, apologies, memories, and love, guiding spirits with the Toro Nagashi. Amid the sounds of quiet conversation and prayers, Toyoaki Sanjuro of Asian Improv Arts Midwest played a shamisen with a bittersweet melody as we completed our send-offs. We circled the garden, crossing the bridge and stepping stones, watching the lanterns sail—some capsizing due to the unfortunate strong winds of the evening.

Speakers Rev. Todd Tsuchiya, Resident Minister of the Midwest Buddhist Temple, and Dr. Rachel Bronson, President and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists shared a few words after the ceremony, emphasizing the importance of ensuring that events like Hiroshima and Nagasaki never happen again. The involvement of multiple community volunteers, speakers, and participants made the event both diverse and unique while keeping the focus on memorializing those affected by the nuclear bombs in Japan.

The event was organized by The Japanese Arts Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to creating opportunities for education and support of Japanese arts in the Chicago area. The organization hosted a similar commemoration in 2023 and has been creating events and spaces to share Japanese culture in Chicago since 2016. 

This event was deeply moving. Seeing so many diverse individuals — people of varying ages, cultures, and ethnicities — made me feel inspired and hopeful that a nuclear-free future, one where no one falls victim to nuclear weapons and their testing, production, and maintenance, may truly be possible. The light of the lanterns floating through the pond, eventually pushed into enclaves by the wind, reminded me that we are all in this together — though we may be separated by borders, oceans, and barriers beyond the physical, nuclear abolition and disarmament is a human issue, regardless of who you are.