September 2002

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

Hiroshima Flame at New York's Ground Zero

After alerting Peacework readers to the Hiroshima Flame Interfaith Pilgrimage (Peacework Dec 2001), Louise Dunlap walked for portions of this four-month journey organized by Rev. Jun Yasuda of the Grafton Peace Pagoda. To learn more about this and other pilgrimages, visit www.dharmawalk.org.

Photo: Louise Dunlap

As they crossed the country from January to May, 2002, thirty or so Flamewalkers reported remarkable support for their message of peace in these troubled times. "Generally people were very friendly to us," a 19-year-old Japanese walker told me. "It's the government that's confused since September 11, not the population." I noticed this too--scowls turning to smiles as we passed stalled New Jersey traffic and through Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn where I didn't expect support.

A main reason for the good reception, I think, was the walkers' deep commitment to creating a peaceful community amongst themselves. Young and old helped each other transform anger, fear, and judgment--to resolve the inevitable tensions, to be peace as they walked for peace. This included learning not to view as adversaries the men and women who work at weapons industry facilities like Lockheed and Oakridge. Without budging from their commitment to a nuclear-free world, most walkers walked not to change others so much as to change themselves. For the first time, I was able to experience how one change ripples into the other. Our inner work meant that our column of walkers, just through nonverbal exchanges, could lighten and transform the fearful, angry human energy around us--a kind of transformation essential to cultivating a massive grassroots will for new government policies.

And after all, the beautiful flame we were carrying stood for exactly this transformation. Bringing live embers home from his uncle's bombed-out store after the Hiroshima firestorm, Mr. Tatsuo Yamamoto fumed with anger and the desire to strike back in vengeance. Yet his grandmother used the embers to light a flame on the family's Buddhist alter and lovingly tended the flame to honor her lost family. Over the years, Mr. Yamamoto himself began to feel his anger transformed to compassion and the desire for peace. In Japan, this flame has become an emblem at many peace shrines.

Model for a Temporary Prayer Structure for site of the World Trade Center, by Shigeru Ban, for the exhibit "A New World Trade Center: Design Proposals." Copyright Shigeru Ban Architects, courtesy Max Protetch Gallery (www.maxprotetch.com) and Regan Books." The exhibit will be part of the permanent collection of the Library of Congress. These notes from the architect accompanied the proposal: "I have already been designed the proposal for the site of WTC right after the tragedy. My proposal is the temporary Paper structure to pray. I cannot imagine designing another high-rise building to indicate 'the EGO.'"

When we entered the city where so many died so suddenly last September, we were joined by over a hundred more walkers, chanting from deep in our hearts, praying our various prayers, down the long avenues to that big hole in the cityscape. Miraculously we had received a rare permit for a ceremony on an empty street just east of the site, so the flame was placed high on an altar with fragrant lilies and peace cranes, overlooking the site. Three Native American leaders opened with an ancient ceremony for "wiping the tears"--to release spirits that needed to move on from this spot. Poets, priests, musicians, and griots from all the major continents then spoke to healing the suffering here, at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and at any future site of mass destruction.

After the walk, the Hiroshima flame was returned to the Four Corners area of the US southwest where the uranium mined for the bomb also killed Hopi, Navajo, and Pueblo miners. The flame was ceremonially extinguished in the earth from which it came, but dozens of flamewalkers still talk to each other in an Internet group, still help each other with anger, judgment, and how to live their lives to make their energy count for peace.

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