| HIROSHIMA DAY 2009 | 4th Aug 2009 | Download | Email to a Friend |
Lord Mayor of Coventry's Committee for Peace and Reconciliation
HIROSHIMA DAY 2009
Chapel of Unity, Coventry Cathedral
Thursday 6th August 2009 6-7pm
This is our nineteenth service of quiet reflection, held annually in the Chapel of Unity. There will be music, poetry, readings and silence.
During the service we will make Japanese Origami Paper Cranes of Peace.
The Service will be led by Ann Farr in the presence of the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Coventry, Councilor Jack Harrison and Mrs Jill Harrison.
Everyone is welcome.
The Lord Mayor will make the following welcome: “Coventry is known throughout the world as a city of Peace and Reconciliation. It is significant that the first steps towards this were taken on the morning after the bombing of the city in 1940, when the Provost of the Cathedral stood in its smoking ruins and declared that there must be no vengeance: a new cathedral would rise like a phoenix from the ruins and Coventry would become a centre of reconciliation.
We continue to work for peace and reconciliation and, on behalf of the city, I welcome everyone to this annual service of remembrance for those who were killed and injured in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
In 1945 Hiroshima was a city of 255,000 persons. On Monday, August 6, 1945 at 8:15 am, the nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima directly killing an estimated 80,000 people. By the end of the year, injury and radiation brought total casualties to 90,000-140,000. Approximately 69% of the city's buildings were completely destroyed, and 6.6% severely damaged.
For further information please contact Dr Madeleine Sharp Chair, Lord Mayor’s Committee on 02476 414512