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In remembrance of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Greater Victoria Peace School is hosting an event to commemorate the atomic bombings 80 years ago which killed hundreds of thousands in Japan.
At the Japanese-style Gorge Park Pavillion on Wednesday, Aug. 6, community members are invited to make lanterns and launch them into the pavilion's reflecting pools to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the first and only time nuclear weapons have been used in armed conflict.
Within four days in August 1945, the U.S. military dropped two atomic bombs – Fat Man and Little Boy – on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in an effort to force Japan's surrender in the final days of the Second World War.
"Each year, peace is celebrated and its importance remembered through lantern making, music, poetry, dance and drumming that moves and inspires us," noted a news release from the Greater Victoria Peace School.
Lantern-making is expected to begin at 6 p.m. – materials are provided – and the program is expected to begin at 7:30, ahead of launching the lanterns at 9 p.m.
