Cupertino Bell Ringing for Peace Event on August 6, 2021

Cupertino CA

09 August, 2021

11:42 PM

Description

By Rachel Jiang and Jack Zhang On Friday, August 6th at 6 p.m, Cupertino-Toyokawa Sister Cities Inc., (CTSC) hosted its second Bell Ringing for Peace Ceremony at Memorial Park in observance of the 76 years of peace since the end of WWII and bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Toyokawa. Vice Mayor Chao, Councilmember Jon Willey, Councilmember Hung Wei, Consul General of Japan Toru Maeda, CUSC Superintendent Stacy Yao, the president of CTSC Alysa Sakkas, and many other Cupertino citizens joined the organization with a bell in each of their hands. The ceremony started off with speeches from various officials, led by Sakkas, followed by a City of Cupertino proclamation recognizing the week of August 6 through 13 as the Cupertino-Toyokawa Peace Week. Attendees and organizers then huddled around the Stone Lantern, a gift from sister city Toyokawa, Japan, and a 1000-origami cranes display, crafted by the CTSC student delegates to ring bells of peace. After the ceremony was a barbeque, which featured cheese that symbolized the joining of the two cultures (the salt from Rikuzentakata, Japan, and the milk from Crescent City, California brought together as sister cities following the 2011 Tohoku tsunami). According to Sakkas, the 1,000 cranes display is a cultural tradition of Japan featured in the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, a true story about a young Japanese girl who, after developing leukemia from the Hiroshima bombing, folded 1,000 cranes in hopes of being cured. Since then, origami cranes have become a symbol for peace. On the dropping of the atomic bombs during World War II, Consul General Maeda remarked, "It's a very somber moment for us, it's a solemn remembrance. Because most of the victims and their relatives and the offsprings still live in Hiroshima. It's important for us to learn a lesson from it. It's a tragedy not to repeat again." He was elated that Cupertino was committed to international peace, especially due its diversity, stating that "this kind of multigenerational, massive multiethnic gathering is wonderful." Representatives from all of Cupertino's sister city organizations (Copertino, Toyokawa, Hsinshu, Bhubaneswar) were present at the Bell Ringing for Peace. CTSC president Alysa Sakkas was incredibly grateful that each organization supported each other and that the City of Cupertino supported each organization. Sakkas also highlighted the importance of maintaining peace through the ceremony. "We've been sister cities with Toyokawa for 43 years now, and it's been amazing that we've had former delegates become adult delegates on the exchange," said Sakkas. "When you look at someone in another country, you may feel you have nothing in common, but once you get to know them one on one, you realize how similar we all are."