Remembering Hiroshima

On Saturday it will be the 66th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. I came across this story of how people in the Canadian city of Kamloops and it's neighbouring cities of Kelowna and Vernon are taking part in a marathon chanting session to commemorate the August the 6th, 1945 atomic bombing.

Rev. Yasuhiro Miyakawa Sensei will hold a 12-hour chant at the Kamloops Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Temple on Poplar Street on Saturday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“He’ll be chanting non-stop — no "bathroom breaks", no anything,” said Daniel Heslop, the temple’s secretary.

“Others can join in for as much or as little as they like or they can just sit back and enjoy the atmosphere.”

Volunteers were hard at work this week decorating the temple with paper cranes.

“The origami cranes are going to be set out everywhere in the temple, basically,” Heslop said, estimating the number of cranes at about 15,000.

He went on to say that Saturday will mark the fifth year Miyakawa has hosted a similar event — in Kelowna in 2007, in Kamloops in 2008, in Vernon in 2009 and back in Kelowna in 2010.