Human Flower Project
With White, for Hiroshima
White flowers reappear in ceremonies remembering the tens of thousands who were killed by the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. After 65 years, participation may mean progress.
People gathered in mourning, respect, anger and pacifism at the cenotaph in Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 2010.
Photo: New York Times
On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. 80,000 people were killed instantly, and by the end of the year, tens of thousands more had died of radiation poisoning and other injuries.
Today, for the first time, a U.S. dignitary—John Roos, the ambassador to Japan—joined the mayor of Hiroshima and thousands of others at a memorial rite.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon presented a wreath in memory of the Koreans who died in the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima 65 years ago
Photo: Getty
Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, dressed in black, wore a large white flower for the service as he has in years past. Others, including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, also wore the white flower, though Ambassador Roos did not.
Some believe that the U.S. owes Japan a formal apology for its mass killings with nuclear weapons, though the demand—or even the prospect of such—was not directly mentioned so far as we know in the ceremony today. Rather, the presence of a U.S. official, along with U.N. Secretary Ban and first-time representatives from Britain and France, seems to signify a new and strengthened emphasis on disarmament.
“I want President Obama to apologize,” said Tadashi Takahashi, 84, a Hiroshima survivor who became an antiwar advocate. “But even more, I want what he wants — a world without nuclear weapons.”
We have not been able to confirm the source for or meaning of Mayor Akiba’s blossom. White flowers have, of course, been symbols for peace, and we imagine that this is what the mayor intended. In his address, he called “ for the elimination of nuclear arms during the lifetime of at least some of the survivors of the bombing, and for Japan to step out from under the US nuclear ‘umbrella.’”
Hiroshima mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, at right, greets the U.S. ambassador to Japan, John Roos. This is the first year that a U.S. official has formally participated in ceremonies for Hiroshima Day.
Photo: Getty
Through the years, Hiroshima Day has been marked with white-flower rites of various kinds across the world. Members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament have worn the white poppy, on August 6, a pacifist rejoinder to the red poppies of Anzac Day and Remembrance Day, first introduced in 1926. The Kingston Peace Council has brought white flowers and lanterns to float down the Thames, and citizens in Chester, Wales, this year held a “remembrance ceremony with readings, silent reflection and the dropping of white flowers on the river” Dee.
Two years ago, in Bangalore, India, students marked Hiroshima Day with a ”peace ballet” entitled Shiroi Hana (White Flowers).
President Obama is scheduled to visit Hiroshima in November.
Shocking: “This is the first year that a U.S. official has formally participated in ceremonies for Hiroshima Day.”