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Peace Garden's final day marks A-bomb victims

By 
  • July 28, 2010
Toronto City Hall lanternsTORONTO - The very last day in the life of the old Nathan Phillips Square Peace Garden will commemorate the 65th anniversary of the first use of an atomic weapon on a civilian population.

Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae, Hiroshima atom bomb survivors Setsuko Thurlow and Joe Ohori, Juno Award nominee Tom Barlow, the Yakudo Drummers and other community groups will be featured Aug. 6 at the 65th anniversary of the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and, three days later, Nagasaki. Aug. 7 the city will begin decommissioning the old Peace Garden.


A new Peace Garden incorporating elements of the old garden will be built along the western edge of Nathan Phillips Square. The eternal flame from Hiroshima and water from Hiroshima, both blessed by Pope John Paul II, will be transferred to the new Peace Garden.

The nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed between 150,000 and 240,000 civilians.

The Toronto Hiroshima Day commemoration will call for an end to nuclear war plans and capabilities. The Canadian Council of Churches with the backing of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to back nuclear disarmament negotiations in a June 25 letter.

The Nathan Phillips Square event will begin with lessons in how to fold paper cranes at 5:30 p.m. and end with launching paper lanterns on the reflecting pool at 8:45 p.m.
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