By Andrew Hamlin
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Local activist, artist, and musician Stan Shikuma has been a part of the annual “From Hiroshima to Hope” annual gathering “since 1984, I think.”
The event is held every year on Aug. 6 at Green Lake to commemorate the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II. It features music, dance, poetry, theater, speeches, and the ritual launching of candle-lit lanterns on the water.
“The event has grown tremendously,” said Shikuma, this year’s emcee, who also performs with the Seattle Kokon Taiko drumming group, “from a few hundred people and lanterns, to over 1,000 lanterns now and 1,500-2,000 people.
“We have expanded our focus from just remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and preventing nuclear war, to include all wars and then any forms of violence. We have also had fewer speeches and more arts and culture in the program.”
One of this year’s performances, a dance entitled “Kintsugi” (“joining with gold”), comes from the Tsuru Ko dance troupe, led by local dancer and choreographer Gabrielle Nomura Gainor.
The new dance piece, said Gainor, “honors all ancestors impacted by nuclear weapons, including hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors). The musical score includes the recorded voices of two survivors: Izumi Hirano and Jack Dairiki, as well as Nobuko Miyake-Stoner, child of survivors. These interviews were collected by Densho. The recorded interviews are interspersed with music by Paul Kikuchi and Kishi Bashi.
“Kintsugi is a centuries-old art form that embraces the beauty of human flaws. Broken pottery pieces are joined together with a lacquer mixed with powdered gold. This art form shows wholeness can be found even after rupture, brokenness, or pain.
Kintsugi is a reminder of the resilient hibakusha, people who survived an experience meant to kill them, and who experienced great stigma in their society. And yet, the stories of hibakusha are key for us to learn from. I cherish their courageousness and their stories. I deeply wish to honor these survivors.”
Thirty years of “Hope” gave Stan Shikuma plenty of stories to recount.
“Memories of bringing my children when they were young, seeing their joy and satisfaction in lighting and launching their paper lanterns on the lake. I also remember the year my son was asked to speak as the youth voice for the program. No bad memories—well, a few years when it rained, we had to cover the drums in plastic bags to protect the heads from the water.
“One year, we launched lanterns in Frosh Pond on the UW campus and dropped them in from the edge—but when it was time to retrieve them, we suddenly realized just how far down the water was from the sides of the pond. Over three feet, which made it really difficult to pull the lanterns out of the water, and put us at great risk of falling into the pond as we reached way over to grab them.”
This year’s ceremony has a sad incident hanging over it: The theft, from Seattle’s Peace Park, of the long-standing statue of Sadako Sasaki, a little girl who survived the Hiroshima bombing and later folded a thousand origami paper cranes, in the name of peace.
“We will mention the theft prominently in the program and urge people to work for the restoration of the statue,” Shikuma said.
Asked about what they hope people take away from the gathering, Gainor emphasized emotional concerns.
“I hope to lift peoples’ spirits and remind them of the resilience of the human spirit. I hope to capture the emotion and deep love and respect for atomic bomb survivors and for our ancestors who perished in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“Their stories inspire me to speak out for victims of violence and war around the world—including the more than 34,000 people from Gaza who have died to date.”
Shikuma took a wider view.
“We always hope that people will look at peace more seriously and hold it more dearly. We hope that everyone walks away with good memories and a full heart, a bit more ready to face injustice in the world and a bit more likely to stand with others who have been wronged.
“We hope people leave feeling more at peace with themselves and each other, and more committed to peaceful, nonviolent solutions to any violence or injustice they encounter.”
For more information, visit https://fromhiroshimatohope.org.