Ceremony of UN Peace Bell Ringing in 2018
On September 21, 2018, the UN Peace Bell Ringing Ceremony was held at the United Nations Headquarters. Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General, and H.E. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, UN General Assembly chairman, gave speech and rung the bell in front of Mr.koro Bessho, Japanese ambassador to the UN, Mr. Michael Douglas, UN Peace Ambassador, representatives from nations and the five Japanese delegates: Ms. Seiko Takase, representative director of Association for the Preservation of UN Peace Bell, Mr. Kazuaki Tanaka, director, Mr. Masanori Katsura, director, Mr. Yoshimasa Kadota, member, and Ms. Kaiho Tanaka, member.
After the ceremony was ended and the dignitaries were to leave, three people, i.e. Mr. Guterres and H.E. Espinosa with a smile, together with Mr. Bessho, approached Ms. Takase unexpectedly and shook hands with her.
That was realized by the thoughtful people at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations led by Mr. Bessho, the UN mission Ambassador. The visit turned out to be a very memorable one.
Presentation of Peace Bell to Myanmar
On July 11, 2017, a ceremony to present Peace Bells to Myanmar was held in Naypyidaw, the capital. Ms. Seiko Takase, representative director, Mr. Masanori Kasura, director, and four people who provided us with support locally, total 6 of us, attended the ceremony.
On Myanmar side, Mr. Thura U ung Ko, Minister of Religious Affairs and Culture, and government officials, total 80 or so, were present at the ceremony.
We wished to see the three peace bells installed in the following three locations.
1st bell – Diet or premise of equivalent significance,
2nd bell – Pagoda, and
3rd bell – Japan Cemetery
Myanmar is the place where Chiyoji fought the severe war, lost his soldiers and was the only survivor in his unit, hence hardened his resolution “No More Wars.”
Chiyoji’s peace bell movement started here, and resulted in presenting the peace bell to the United Nations.
Reviving the faded Gold Letters on the Peace Bell
The gold letters on the bell 「世界絶対平和萬歳」 (literal translation is “World’s Absolute Peace for Ten thousand Years”) represent Chiyoji Nakagawa’s intense desire. The gold letters faded away after many years, and we launnched a project to repair it. The projec was undertaken by Oigo Ltd., and a crafsman visited to New York from Japan.