As I walked through Ueno Park in Tokyo on sunday morning this shrine caught my eye –
I went for a closer look once this young woman had moved on.
Goodness, isn’t this just amazing? I looked more carefully at the flickering flame –
I had no idea what this was all about but I found it completely captivating. At the base of the shrine was marble onto which the shadows of the overhead leaves played looking for all the world like fleeting reflections of the kanji letters below the dove with the flame.
Yesterday I asked the students if they knew what this was, and they told me that it was to commemorate those who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and that the flame was a continuous flame which stretched right back to the fires in those cities after the bomb fell.
Then this morning, outside my hotel room door, I find the Daily Yomiuri and look what’s on the front page –
Heroes Not Zombies 
This is quite amazing and thought provoking. but also i would like to know how does that flame burn if it’s everlasting???? Bob were you able to see what the colourful pieces of material were,
Oh it really is amazing. I’m sure the flame is like the Olympic flame, passed from torch to torch.
The colourful material is paper – those long tails of origami pieces are quite common at shrines in Japan. They are quite incredible, aren’t they?
from peace newspaper produced by Japanease teens in
Hiroshima.
The fire itself is made up of “religious fire” and “industrial fire.” The “religious fire” came from 16 religious groups. The “industrial fire” was sent from industrial areas all over Japan.
By submitting an application to Hiroshima City Hall, it’s possible to share in the fire from the “Flame of Peace.” In 2008, in fact, the fire from the flame was used in 24 events, such as peace and anti-nuclear rallies and festivals. In 2009, City Hall received a total of 19 applications from Japan and overseas seeking use of the flame. Fourteen places, including sites in Okinawa, Canada the U.K., featured fire from the Hiroshima flame to appeal for peace.
As noted above, the “Flame of Peace” wasn’t started with embers from the atomic bombing. However, a fire from embers of the bombing has been tended to this day in the village of Hoshino in Fukuoka Prefecture, about 350 km from Hiroshima.
The man who carried the embers to Hoshino was named Tatsuo Yamamoto. Mr. Yamamoto’s hometown was Hoshino and he died in 2004 at the age of 88. On August 6, 1945, he survived the atomic bombing and helped with relief efforts for the wounded and the cremation of victims. At the same time, he searched for his uncle, who ran a bookstore on Hondori shopping street, but was unable to find him. On September 16, after the war was over, he took some embers from the basement of the bookstore, in place of his uncle’s remains, and brought them back to Hoshino in a pocket warmer.
Fire shared in 14 places
Mr. Yamamoto kept this fire alive by lighting candles at his family altar, a brazier and a kamado, an old-fashioned Japanese stove.
Mr. Yamamoto’s second son, Takudoh Yamamoto, 59, a Hoshino potter, explained: “For my father, the fire didn’t only represent a ‘flame of peace’; it was also a ‘fire of anger’ and a ‘fire of remembrance’ for the victims of Hiroshima.” He added, “My father’s emotions seemed torn when it came to the flame and he endured a lot of suffering in his life.”
On August 6, 1968, the village of Hoshino took over the safeguarding of the flame. The fire remains lit in the town’s Peace Tower and a peace ceremony is organized every year for the anniversary of the bombing, August 6.
According to Hoshino officials, the fire has been shared with 14 places in Japan, including Aichi and Tokyo. In addition, the flame is made use of about 10-15 times a year for short-term events like peace concerts. A book and a choral composition have also been created about this fire and, in the United States, a documentary film called “GATE” was made. (Rie Nii, Staff Writer)
I would never have guessed that was paper to me it looked like colourful pieces of clothing. I find the whole shrine just amazing