2005, Dharma School 50th Anniversary Year

Golden Anniversary Celebration

• 50th Anniversary Slide Show (5Mb PDF File)

• Messages

Special Pilgrimage Tour

• Itinerary

• Pilgrimage Tour Message

• Jidou-Nembutsu Hoshidan Program, Day 1

• Kikyoshiki Ceremony

• Jidou-Nembutsu Hoshidan Program, Day 2

• Commemorative Photo

• Message from Rev. Ryoga Suwa

• Visit Peace Park and A-Bomb Museum

• Venice Hongwanji in the News

The Atomic Bombing and The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

All tremble at violence,
Life is dear to all.
Comparing others with oneself
One should neither kill nor cause others to kill.
~Dhammapada v. 130

Let us pray for miracles of peace in the world.
Let us bring forth miracles of peace.
Let us be miracles of peace.
from text for "Ah Nagasaki," a choral symphony being composed by Robert Kyr to be presented to the citizens of Nagasaki in August 2005 (by way of Kazuaki Tanahashi)

The past few years have brought many reminders of the ways in which we arm ourselves with weapons of all kinds: conventional, nuclear, chemical, and just as significantly, ideas and beliefs to which we hold tenaciously. This array of weaponry, both physical and psychological, is one of the ways we help to maintain and create the suffering we find in our contemporary society.

The year 2005 offers a sad reminder, in the form of the 60th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More than 270,000 people were killed in the bombing itself or as a result of radiation fallout in the years afterward. 

From the ruins of this devastation, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum opened in August 1955.  The Museum was created for the purpose of describing the events of the atomic bombing to people of all nations and to promote the abolition of nuclear weapons and the creation of lasting world peace. After all these years and attempts to negotiate limits to nuclear arms, there are still approximately 36,000 nuclear weapons in the world's arsenals, primarily in the USA, UK, Russia, France, and China—about 2,667 times the firepower experienced in the entire six years of World War II, thus making the goal of the Museum more urgent than ever.

“Our goal is to bring forth a beautiful ‘flower’ for the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings, namely, the total elimination of all nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth by the year 2020. Only then will we have truly resurrected hope for life on this ‘nothing will grow’ planet.

Tadatoshi Akiba
Mayor
The City of Hiroshima

 Let us help to realize the goal articulated by Mayor Tadatoshi on behalf of the people of Hiroshima by becoming aware of the violence we harbor in ourselves and re-dedicating ourselves to the path of the Nembutsu shown to us by Shinran Shonin.  Let us work for world peace in our relations with our families, friends and neighbors, and let us not hesitate to call into question our ability to create war as a nation, a community, or as an individual.  Let us further have the courage to recognize this, and like the construction of the Peace Museum, find the strength to build the foundation for everlasting peace.