The Oakridger, Friday, March 31, 2006

A song of peace


By: Leean Tupper and Betsy Abernathy | Oak Ridge Staff
leean.tupper@oakridger.com

Twenty-nine boys brought a message of peace to Oak Ridge Thursday during performances at Oak Ridge High School and First United Methodist Church.

The Hiroshima Boys' Choir, comprised of 29 boys ages 9 to 18, performed Thursday morning at ORHS, sharing their music and culture with the student body. They sang and danced to various selections of traditional Japanese music, including a medley of nursery songs.

Additionally, the choir members participated in a special ceremony on Thursday, in which gifts were exchanged and wishes for peace were shared.

Oak Ridge Mayor David Bradshaw - presented with a bright blue blazer like the ones the older choir members were wearing - accepted a letter from Tadatoshi Akiba, the mayor of Hiroshima.

"It is a message of world peace. That's a message we should take to heart," Bradshaw said, adding that he would have the letter placed in the city of Oak Ridge's official records.

Steve Kelly, a representative of the Sister City Support Organization, presented Hiroshima Boys' Choir Director Hisao Hayashi with a small replica of the Friendship Bell that was designed in Oak Ridge, cast in Japan in 1993, and placed in A.K. Bissell Park.

Scott Fraker/Staff
The Hiroshima Boys' Choir performs in the Oak Ridge High School auditorium Thursday morning. The choir sang a selection of Japanese folk songs, nursery songs, and other traditional and contemporary Japanese music; some of the songs were choreographed as well. The Hiroshima Boys' Choir returns to Japan on Saturday.
Hayashi, through an interpreter, said he would give the miniature bell to Hiroshima's mayor. He also said he, the boys and their seven chaperones have been impressed with the city of Oak Ridge and its people.

"We did not experience the bombings, but we want to continue telling people all around the world about it," he said.

The choir also presented ORHS Principal Becky Ervin with a miniature replica of the Children's Peace Monument, which stands in Peace Memorial Park, located at the site of the atomic bomb detonation in 1945.

As another part of the ceremony at the high school, art teacher Cheryl Thompson unveiled 1,000 paper cranes that Oak Ridgers folded in recent weeks. The blue-and-white paper cranes were strung in several rows along the balcony.

In a symbol of unity, a member of the Hiroshima Boys' Choir and ORHS freshman Ethan Thompson helped place the thousandth, larger white paper crane among the others.

The legend of the 1,000 cranes began with Sadako Sasaki, a girl from Hiroshima. Made sick by the aftereffects of radiation after her city was decimated, Sadako started folding cranes from her hospital bed. Sadako died, but other children took over for her, and since then, cranes have come to represent more than luck and wishes in Japan.

Scott Fraker/Staff
ORHS art teacher Cheryl Thompson explains the significance of the 1,000 cranes now hanging in the high school auditorium.
"Each flap of their wings is a prayer for peace raised from the hands of children. It shows that when we come together, it is amazing the things we can accomplish," Thompson said. Thompson, who studied in Japan for three weeks last year as part of the Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program, proposed the project of folding cranes in Oak Ridge as a way to raise awareness of Japanese culture and the desire, shared by Japanese and Americans, for world peace.

Later on Thursday, at a ceremony at the Friendship Bell at A.K. Bissell Park, the members of the Hiroshima Boys' sang and presented their own 1,000 folded origami paper cranes.

Other activities Thursday for the choir included a visit to the American Museum of Science and Energy and dinner at Big Ed's - followed by a final Oak Ridge performance at First United Methodist Church. Singing a variety of mostly Japanese music, the choir presented an entertaining and moving program which included two traditional fisherman's songs, each with its own dance, a carnival number from the Japanese musical "Lion's Flute," and a selection of Japanese folk songs. Some songs utilized costumes and props like Japanese flags and warrior's swords, and many had accompanying choreography. A few songs were performed a capella; most were accompanied on piano, and in some cases by a flute and by a Japanese drum.

During the choir's signature song, "The Day Folded Paper Cranes Fly," which told the story of Sadako Sasaki, an English translation was projected so that the audience could understand the significance of the song's plea for world peace.

Scott Fraker/Staff
The Hiroshima Boys Choir enjoy Big Ed's pizza.
Renowned Oak Ridger Alvin Weinburg, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1955 through 1973, had a front-row seat in the church. He had requested that the Friendship Bell replica be on display at the concert. It rested on a table at the front of the church next to the Children's Peace Monument replica, which was also in the form of a bell.

After performing at Rocky Hill Elementary School in Knoxville this morning and the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, also in Knoxville, at 7:30 tonight, the group will return to Japan Saturday.

The choir's visit to Oak Ridge was made possible by the efforts of a number of people, including Jerry and Ken Luckmann and Shigeko Uppuluri, all members of the Oak Ridge Sister City Support Organization, and Tim Ward, director of music at First United Methodist Church.