Peace House invites you to join many partners in the community for the 38th annual observation of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings Saturday, August 6 at the Thalden Pavilion in Ashland. The event will feature the planting of a Gingko biloba tree grown from a seed that survived the atomic blast in Hiroshima, Japan.
The event will also include an expression of collective hope for an end to the threat of nuclear annihilation by Hiroshima survivor and Medford resident Hideko Tamura Snyder, performances by Ashland’s Peace Choir, remarks by Peace House Director Elizabeth Hallett, and an opening reflection by Dan Wahpepah with Red Earth Descendants.
Also featured will be the traditional ringing of the gong followed by silence to mark the moment of the detonation that killed more than 100,000 residents of Hiroshima, and a reading of the City of Ashland proclamation declaring August 6 as “Hiroshima Day” and August 9 as “Nagasaki Day.”
Closing the program at the pavilion will be the offering of prayers while ladling water over stones in a basin. The attendants will then proceed with the basin over a short boardwalk to the site of the peace tree, where the dedication will take place and its roots will be watered with prayer.
