Candle-lit lanterns will float across Green Lake at From Hiroshima to Hope on Tuesday, August 6, spreading Sadako's message of peace, healing, and hope.

The event features music, dance, and poetry leading to a moving lantern floating ceremony at dusk.

This year, the event takes place against the backdrop of the recent vandalism and theft of the Seattle Peace Park statue of Sadako Sasaki — a young Japanese girl who died from leukemia following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. Sadako folded over 1,000 paper cranes before her death in hope for healing and peace. Our event's theme of Hope is especially important in highlighting Sadako's story and her timeless message. From Hiroshima to Hope calls upon those who removed the statue to return Sadako to the Peace Park by August 6, the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

From Hiroshima to Hope begins at 6:00 PM with lantern preparation. The family program gets underway at 7:00 PM. The keynote speaker is Naomi Ostwald Kawamura, Executive Director of Densho, an organization dedicated to preserving the story of the World War II-era incarceration of Japanese Americans. This year marks the 82nd anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which led to the removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans on the U.S. West Coast.

Performing artists include choreographer Gabrielle Nomura Gainor, debuting a new dance performance, “Honoring our Ancestors"; Japanese American drum group, Seattle Kokon Taiko; Troy Osaki, an award-winning Filipino Japanese poet, organizer, and attorney; Sound Singers, a Japanese choir, with folksinger Michael Stern; traditional Japanese koto music with Koto no WA, a musical performance by Red Eagle Soaring Native Youth Theatre, and more.

This year's event will also feature exhibition of a new sculpture, "Nuclear Memories"

by Lauren Iida with Blades of Change, created from a fan blade intended for use at the never-completed Satsop nuclear power plant. Iida is a Japanese American paper-cut artist and public artist originally from Seattle. In addition, the fabric sculpture and full-scale replica of the atomic bomb, "Little Boy (folded)" by artist Yukiyo Kawano will again be shown.

The candle-lit lantern ceremony begins at 8:00 p.m., with lanterns floating on the lake at dusk. This year is the 40th anniversary of From Hiroshima to Hope, one of the largest commemorations of the atomic bombings held outside of Japan.

The event is created annually by the non-profit organization, From Hiroshima to Hope, and is sponsored by local community organizations, with grant support from The City of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, and Seattle Parks and Recreation. It is held just south of the historic Bathhouse, on Green Lake’s northwest shore near West Green Lake Drive North and Stone Ave North. This community event is free and open to the public.

For more information: call 206-928-2590 or visit: https://fromhiroshimatohope.org or https://www.facebook.com/FromHiroshimaToHope