Religions For Peace Share Their Message With Palolo Valley

Hiroshima survivor Shigeko Sasamori at the ‘A-bombs Exhibit for Peace,’ held recently at Palolo Hongwanji. Photo by Lawrence Tabudlo, ltabudlo@midweek.com.

Palolo Hongwanji hosted a sobering display last month, “A-bombs Exhibit for Peace,” in partnership with the Hawaii Conference of Religions for Peace.

The educational exhibit included war-related material from Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as peace-building resources, drawings, poetry, paper cranes and peace books for all ages. Also offered were meditation and healing sessions designed to focus on issues of sacrifice, forgiveness, blame, compassion, aggression and peace.

Present for the Oct. 18 opening ceremony was Shigeko Sasamori, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, whose keynote address was a simple message about “Love and Peace.” The peace-filled week in Palolo Valley concluded Oct. 26 in the mission’s inner temple with a “Peace Prayer” program and a speech by UH education professor Charlotte Frambaugh-Kritzer on “Peace Education for Youth.”

The HCRP network strives to “promote inter-religious dialogue and cooperation.” The October project in Palolo was initiated by Masago Asai, a second-generation survivor of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki.