Hundreds made their way to Green Lake Park to honor the lives lost in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 78 years ago.
From Hiroshima to Hope organized the event once again and nearly everyone who attended placed lit lanterns with messages of hope in the lake and watched as Green Lake lit the night sky.
Yohei, who is of Japanese descent, told KIRO7 he wrote unity on his lantern and shared that moment with his 3-year-old son.
“This is for my son,” Yohei said. “I hope he catches his dream of no war. No war anymore.”
To some in the audience, this year felt different. Given the fact one of the biggest movies across the United States, Oppenheimer, is about the making of the atomic bombs dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of the speakers, Liz Murata, believes the movie has actually made more people curious about those events.
“I think people are curious. And it’s a good time to talk to people about what’s happening and what happened and how we can learn from it,” Murata said.
Murata says she grew up in Hanford, Washington, where plutonium was produced for the atomic bombs. She reflected on her childhood as she addressed the crowd about what it was like to grow up near a nuclear reactor.
“I always thought of living there as a cruel joke. A little half-Japanese, half-German girl growing up next to a nuclear reactor just 13 years after the war,” Murata said.
But seeing all walks of life at the lantern ceremony gave Murata hope for the future.
“I think anytime you can bring a community together that is very diverse, you win,” Murata said. “Because people start sharing their stories and the more we all share the individual stories, the more we change the collective story.”
And while the thoughts and impact of the bombings weigh heavy on many in Puget Sound, many who attended the ceremony believe it’s important to continue that day’s conversation and make sure something like these bombings never happens again.
“I feel that it’s really important for us to bring to other generations of people to tell those kinds of stories,” Miyu said.
“Because if we don’t learn from it we are going to lose democracy again,” Murata said.
