Commemoration Events Recap 2026

Yukimakai tea study group participated in the annual commemorative tea ceremony held at Lyndale Park Peace Garden in Minneapolis on August 5.  The tea ceremony was performed by Cynthia Haskell and Gail Wong. First and second guests were Nicholas Pawlowski and Lionel Blatchley.  This contemplative ceremony sets the mood for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemorations later in the week. 

The Hiroshima commemoration, also known as the Ceremony of the Cranes, took place on the morning of August 6, also at the Peace Garden.  Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer was the keynote speaker who explained how his visit to Hiroshima changed his life.  Nicholas Pawlowski told the story of Sadako and the thousand cranes in front of the Spirit of Peace sculpture which shows the steps of folding the origami peace crane.  Steve McKeown and Larry Johnson rang bells to mark the beginning of the moment of silence at 8:15, the time the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  Everyone received an origami crane and processed to the Peace Garden Bridge behind the Minnesota Peace Ribbon.  The String beans provided music. 

Masanari Kawahara, “Masa” performed an original Butoh meditation at the Nagasaki Commemoration on August 8 at the Global Harmony Labyrinth at Como Park.  Dressed in white and with white paint on his body, Masa wordlessly told the story of his Grandmother searching for her friend after the bombing of Hiroshima and segued into the finding of Grandmother’s Bowl, which was what Sachiko Yasui found at her family’s destroyed house after the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.  This powerful performance was followed by a meaningful meditation led by Nancy Hyvarinen.  Leo Hansen played his shakuhachi flute.  St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her also attended the ceremony.