Individuals, families, city mayors and officials, and clergy from all faiths are encouraged to join the 2020 “Bells for Peace” campaign to unite the world for Peace.
On August 6, 2020, during the Tokyo Olympics, all Olympic Village video screens are to be tuned into the 75th Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Anniversary Ceremony. At exactly 8:15 am, the time the atomic bomb nicknamed “Little Boy” exploded over Hiroshima in 1945, every church, temple and shrine bell will ring throughout Japan, and simultaneously bells will ring around the world to acknowledge a moment of remembrance, reflection, hope and prayers for World Peace.
Then, at 11:02 am, on August 9, 2020, during the last day of the Tokyo Olympics, the exact time “Fat Man” exploded over Nagasaki, every church, temple and shrine bell, will again ring throughout Japan, and simultaneously bells will ring around the world to acknowledge a moment of remembrance, reflection, hope and prayers for World Peace. The NHK TV feed is to be sent around the World.
This will be a very special message of Peace and a tribute to all the lives lost in the bombings. As you may know, our goal is also to involve Music Hands as a message of peace in the Olympic ceremonies. We will send further news in the next newsletter regarding these efforts.
– Richard Fukuhara
Richard Fukuhara died in December 2018. So it is now up to us to pick up the torch and achieve the Bells for Peace vision to be broadcast around the world on the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
People around the world are invited to ring bells 75 times at the moment the nuclear weapons exploded over each city. We do this both to bear witness and to unite our passion for peace with our resolve to eliminate nuclear weapons.
The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will host a record 33 sports and 339 events from July 24 to August 9. The whole world will be watching. Carpe Diem. Seize these moments.
You, or your organization, church, temple, synagogue, civic hall, peace tower, fire hall, university, city, town, country, NGO, corporation, restaurateur, truck drivers, philanthropic fund, college, bell maker, glockenspiel players, temple gong, musician, drummers, symphony orchestra, high school band, elementary school, door bell, car horn, or pots and pans are all invited to make a powerful sound around Earth for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. Let peace ring clearly. Lets fully support this beautiful vision for peace. Please share this message with all. It will also be posted at commonground.ca
Notes on peace
The Christmas Truce: on Christmas Day, in the first year of World War I, German, British and French soldiers disobeyed their superiors and fraternized with “the enemy” along two-thirds of the Western Front. German troops held Christmas trees up out of the trenches with signs, “Merry Christmas.” “You no shoot, we no shoot.” Thousands of troops streamed across the no-man’s land. Soldiers embraced men they had been trying to kill a few short hours before.
The use of nuclear weapons breach all of the following declarations and conventions:
- Declaration of St. Petersburg, 1868, because unnecessary suffering would be caused and there would be no avoidance or minimizing of incidental loss of civilian life;
- Hague Convention, 1907, because unnecessary suffering would be caused and there would be no guarantee of the inviolability of neutral nations;
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, because long-lasting radioactive contamination would interfere with innocent people’s right to life and health;
- Geneva Conventions, 1949, because protection of the wounded, sick, the infirm, expectant mothers, civilian hospitals and health workers would not be ensured;
- The Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions, 1977, because there would be massive incidental losses of civilian lives and widespread, long-term and severe damage to the environment.
For more information
Please contact Joseph Roberts, founder of Vancouver’s first Walk for Peace in 1982 and Common Ground publisher: office: 604 733 2215 joseph@commonground.ca