Peace Memorial City, Hiroshima

5. Peace Memorial City, Hiroshima

5.1 Peace Restoration Festival/ Restoration Bureau

Centering on August 6, 1946, a Peace Restoration Festival was held. Amidst tears, the surviving citizens of the city prayed for the peace of the souls of the A-bomb victims and pledged themselves to the restoration of world peace. A Hiroshima Citizens' Rally for the Restoration of Peace was held on August 5 at what had previously been the Gokoku Shrine (near the present Hiroshima Baseball Stadium). About seven thousand people gathered carrying nags draped in black and banners on which the slogan "World peace begins from Hiroshima" was written. Being under Allied occupation, government agencies could not sponsor such a festival. In addition, permission to hold a festival had to be granted by the general headquarters of the occupation forces in Tokyo and its branch in Kure. The festival was carried out under occupation surveillance and no anti-American speeches or actions were permitted.

Exactly at 8:15 on August 6, sirens were sounded all over the city. Streetcars, buses and people all stopped moving and those in offices stood, leaving their pens and abacuses on their desks, and paid silent tribute to the victims for one minute. This first anniversary Peace Restoration Festival was of deep significance. It gave people, crushed by privation, a glimmer of hope which heightened their desire for restoration of the city.

The city developed a basic plan for restoration and proceeded by organizing a restoration bureau in January 1946, and a restoration council in February in the burnt-out city hall. The plan to build Peace Boulevard (100-meter-wide avenue) was also made at that time. Though administrative agencies and the people of Hiroshima had very strong enthusiasm for the plan, it was extremely difficult to carry it out since the damage done by the A-bomb was so complete and because Japan was under military occupation. The hibakusha had not recovered their physical strength and had no energy to engage in the restoration of their city, living, as many did, in wretched hovels which did not even shelter them from rain. It was only around 1949 or 1950 that they resumed some semblance of normal liviing.

5.2 Inauguration of a Mayor Elected by Popular Vote

In April 1947 Shinzo Hamai was elected mayor by popular vote in the first post-war Elected by Popular Vote election. Hiroshima was newly born on the principle of democracy.

Mayor Hamai, hoping to make Hiroshima the Mecca of all people who long for world peace, established the Hiroshima Peace Festival Association and decided to hold a Peace Festival on August 6 every year. He also decided to issue a Peace Declaration. (The generic name of this ceremony had been the "Peace Memorial Ceremony" since 1965. However, its name was changed to the "Ceremony to Pray for Peace" in 1968 and again to the "Peace Memorial Ceremony" in 1975. This name continues to be used today.)

5.3 The First Peace Festival

On August 6 1947 the first Peace Festival was held in an open area in Jisenji-no-hana (This area is now included in Peace Memorial Park). The festival took place around a wooden peace tower which was built for the occasion. After a silent prayer by the people present, the Peace Bell was rung. Then Mayor Hamai took the platform and read aloud to the world the first Peace Declaration. "This horrible weapon brought about a 'Revolution of Thought', which has convinced us of the necessity and the value of eternal peace. That is to say, because of this atomic bomb, the people of the world have become aware that a global war in which atomic energy would be used would lead to the end of our civilization and the extinction of mankind. This revolution in thinking ought to be the basis for an absolute peace, and imply the birth of new life and a new world." Mayor Hamai expressed his convictions eloquently, speaking from his own experience as a hibakusha.

This annual Peace Declaration has stirred interest throughout the world. Each year many people send encouraging and supporting words to the Hiroshima city government.

5.4 "No More Hiroshimas" Movement

Rev Kiyoshi Tanimoto of Nagarekawa Church, a hibakusha, was interviewed in Tokyo by a United Press correspondent, Lutherford Poats, in 1948 and the interview appeared in the Stars and Stripes, the newspaper of the American armed forces. In this article Poats used a new expression "No More Hiroshimas", which was reprinted in other American newspapers. Alfred Parker, custodian of Tenth Avenue Baptist Church, Oakland, California, was struck by this message and immediately proposed a "No More Hiroshimas" movement to people of 26 countries.

With this as a beginning, people all over the world became interested in the movement, and "Hiroshima Day" meetings were held on August 6 in many parts of the world.

Mayor Hamai, in the second Peace Festival in 1948, read his Peace Declaration: "We pray in sincerity that there may never be another Hiroshima in any part of the world." His words were translated into English and written on the Peace Tower in huge letters. Thus he expressed his determination to make Hiroshima a Mecca for world peace.

5.5 Peace Memorial City Hiroshima

Hiroshima is no longer merely a Japanese crty. It has become recognized throughout the world as a Mecca of world peace. From this standpoint, Mayor Hamai felt that the reconstruction of Hiroshima should be initiated by the Japanese Government and in that way the new peaceful Japan could gain credibility with foreign countries. The city assembly agreed and passed a resolution unanimously favoring his proposal, a "Petition for the General Reconstruction of Hiroshima from Atomic Bomb Damage."A petition was sent to the government. This developed into a movement to enact a special law initiated by members of the Diet, and a "Hiroshima Peace Memorial City Construction Law" was enacted. Nagasaki City joined the Hiroshima movement and a similar "Nagasaki International Culture City Construction Law" was passed.

In a special poll of residents, carried out on July 7, 1949, an absolute majority approved of the law and it went into effect on August 6, 1949. Under Article I of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial City Construction Law which consists of 7 articles, it is written that "This law aims at the construction of Hiroshima as a Peace Memorial City, a symbol of the ideal of making lasting peace a reality." During the feudal period, Hiroshima prospered as a castle town of the Mori Clan, one of the influential clans of western Japan. The Mori Clan was followed by the Fukushima Clan and the Asano Clan. After the Meiji Restoration, Hiroshima developed and grew into one of the largest and most important military bases of Japan. Destroyed by the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare, Hiroshima rose from the ashes as a Mecca of world peace.