August 6th: 50th Sendai Peace Tanabata Festival - Young people's energy in action
- 【サイト管理者】 黒澤
- Aug 8, 2025
- 2 min read
On August 6th, Sendai Tanabata, one of the summer festivals in Tohoku, began. This day also marks the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima Atomic Bombing. Our ongoing Sendai Peace Tanabata festival also kicked off. People make streamers out of paper cranes sent from all over the country in hopes of peace, calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons and peace. This year marks the 50th anniversary.
It had been raining since the morning, but fortunately the rain didn't fall on the arcade where the event was held. The temperature had dropped a little, but the humidity was unbearable. From the morning onwards, the area was bustling with tourists enjoying the colorful Tanabata decorations.
The first lei distribution took place at 10:00 a.m. The idea was to have people take home leis with strips of paper calling for nuclear abolition and think about peace. Three students from Meiji Gakuin Higashimurayama High School from Tokyo also participated. They have been participating every year for the past year or so, and are also supporting the areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Top photo: High school students making leis. Students from Higashimurayama High School and Sendai Shokei Gakuin High School participated at Sendai Miyagino Church on August 4th. Bottom photo: Distributing leis.
Many of the leis were made from recycled streamers that had been used in the previous year. One person said, "I came from Koriyama and look forward to these leis every year." They had finished distributing 1,000 leis in about an hour.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the event, and the participation of young people has been a great help, with high school students actively making leis. At the "Sendai Peace Tanabata 50th Anniversary Lecture" held on the 19th of last month, students from Shokei Gakuin High School took on all the running of the event, including acting as emcee and receptionist.
This morning's Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony was reported on television. Hiroshima Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki called for a break with nuclear deterrence, saying, "The theory of nuclear deterrence could lead to the destruction of humanity." Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is supposed to be the leader of the only country to have been attacked with atomic bombs in war, did not even mention joining the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, something that atomic bomb survivors have strongly called for.
The Dooms Day Clock, which likens the nuclear destruction of the Earth to midnight, now shows 1 minute and 29 seconds left.
Peace Tanabata will also be held on the 7th and 8th. (End)
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