Photographs from 2015 Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony & Lantern Floating Ceremony

One of the highlights of my year and time in Japan was visiting Hiroshima during the Memorial Ceremony. 2015 is an important year that marks the passage of 70 years since the first atomic bomb ‘Little Boy’ was ever used in the world.

Although I hadn’t pre-planned going to the ceremony until about a day beforehand, after I made my decision to attend, I was eager for a day full of introspection and self-realization. That’s not what I got. In fact, the last thing I had time for in that busy day trip, was time to reflect inwardly. All I was bombarded with was the ultimate message of Hiroshima, its victims, its survivors (Hibakusha), and the impact of the bomb on our lives today. The powerful yet sedated vibes that hung in the air charged the whole city of Hiroshima that day.

It’s not the first time I’ve visited Hiroshima. In fact, I Hiroshima and the Himeji Castle have long been two of my all-time favorite places to visit in Japan! If you haven’t been, I’d highly recommend both! I even posted photos of the Hiroshima Memorial Park on this very blog back in 2012 (see here).

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So, on Aug 6th, 2015, I made a day trip to Hiroshima to attend and be a part of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony and the Peace Message Lantern Floating Ceremony. Both events occur on this day every year for two reasons:

1. To REMEMBER the suffering and disastrous aftereffects of the A-Bomb dropping on Hiroshima and to CONSOLE the 140,000+ souls who lost their lives as a direct result of it
2. For people from all around the world to COME TOGETHER in hope and prayer for everlasting world peace – a future world free of threats from nuclear weapons…. so that there may NEVER be another Hiroshima again.

Here are a few of the photos from that day! For today I just want to quickly share some pictures, but hopefully there will be a future post where I recount what went on that day and my thoughts on the whole experience!