On 6 August 2023, Coventry Lord Mayor’s Committee for Peace and Reconciliation organised the annual Hiroshima Commemoration in Coventry Cathedral on the 78th anniversary of the dropping of the world’s first atomic bomb.

More details below.

On 6 August 2023, Coventry Lord Mayor’s Committee for Peace and Reconciliation organised the annual Hiroshima Commemoration in Coventry Cathedral on the 78th anniversary of the dropping of the world’s first atomic bomb.

Manjit Kaur, Member of the Coventry Sikh Sangat and Chair of the Standing Advisory
Committee for Religious Education (SACRE), led the event.

Coventry’s official Lady Godiva, Pru Porretta MBE, read a description of being in Hiroshima when the bomb exploded, written by a victim.

Lord Mayor of Coventry, Councillor Jaswant Singh Birdi, read his letter of greeting to the Mayor of Hiroshima and Mr Yasuyuki Okazaki, Minister for Public Diplomacy at the Embassy of Japan read the reply from MATSUI Kazumi, Mayor of the City of Hiroshima. He wrote “At the G7 Hiroshima Summit held in May this year, world leaders touched upon the realities of
the atomic bombing, took the Will of Hiroshima into their hearts, and sent to the world a message of working toward a world free from nuclear weapons.”

Students from Cardinal Newman Catholic School Coventry read the story of another victim, Sadako Sasaki. There is an old belief in Japan that a crane can live a thousand years. If you fold a thousand cranes, they will protect you from illness. But Sadako did not have the strength or time to reach a thousand. In October 1955, when she had made only 644, she died.

Jo Hallett of Coventry Quaker Meeting guided the audience as they folded paper cranes as a symbol of our hope for harmony in today’s world and our willingness to work together for peace. The cranes had been prepared by Ann Hilton.

The Right Reverend Dr Christopher Cocksworth, Bishop of Coventry, reflected on the dangers of nuclear weapons.

Organ music was provided by Tony Edwards, Director of Music at All Hallows, Wellingborough. This video also includes Ritual Revival by The Polish Ambassador.

Coventry Lord Mayor’s Committee would like to thank Coventry Cathedral and the Chapel of Unity, Alderman Joe Clifford for ringing Peace Bell, Ann Hilton for making the basic cranes, Margaret Hartley of Coventry Hiroshima Friendship Club and Ann Farr for the Hiroshima Exhibition in the Chapel of Unity.

This video was produced by Philip Brown using photographs taken by Neslihan Ozar.