Genbaku Domu, or the Atom-Bomb Dome, a remnant of a building that withstood the atomic bomb dropped at the end of World War II, stands in Hiroshima, Japan, May 31, 2016. (Elizabeth Baker/U.S. Air Force)
FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii — An observance planned for Memorial Day weekend at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial will include a ceremonial flame whose origins lie in the inferno unleashed when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945.
The Flame of Peace ceremony on May 24 will be “centered on remembrance, reconciliation, and a shared commitment to peace,” the memorial’s superintendent, Tom Leatherman, said in an email Tuesday to Stars and Stripes.
The flame, which has been kept alive in the decades since the bombing, will be flown to Hawaii in a special container on a Japan Airlines flight, according to an article Sunday in The Mainichi newspaper.
Guests invited to the ceremony include Clifton Truman Daniel, the grandson of Harry Truman, who was U.S. president during the final months of World War II and made the decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later.
Also invited to attend are Akie Abe, widow of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi and other community leaders, Leatherman said.
The ceremony was the idea of Yuji Sasaki, a citizen of Japan whose uncle Sadako Sasaki was exposed to radiation from the Hiroshima bombing as a toddler.
Sasaki died at age 12 of radiation-induced leukemia 10 years after the bombing, according to The Mainichi article.
The story of the flame began with Tatsuo Yamamoto, a soldier stationed at a military camp near Hiroshima at the war’s end, according to an Aug. 3, 2008, article in the Taipei Times.
After the bombing, he went into the ruins looking for his uncle who had been running a bookstore. He found the smoldering remains of the shop, but no sign of his uncle.
Yamamoto ignited a small, portable warmer from a flickering flame at the shop, the article states.
He returned to his village and kept the flame alight in his home for years.
It burned there until being moved to a peace tower in Yame, Fukuoka prefecture, in 1968, where it came to be known as the “flame of peace,” according to The Mainichi.
Yamamoto died at age 88 in 2004, according to the article.
Yuji Sasaki learned about the flame of peace about five years ago and began planning on bringing it to Pearl Harbor, according to the report.
As part of the May ceremony, the flame will be extinguished, Leatherman said.
Asked about the symbolism of snuffing out the flame, Leatherman referred the question to Sasaki, who had not responded to an emailed query by Stars and Stripes as of the time of publication.
Leatherman said there would be no permanent installation associated with the flame or ceremony at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial.
