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ROBERT LEE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
Dozens decorate lanterns at Winnipeg\u2019s Memorial Park fountain for the Lanterns for Peace ceremony on Thursday.<\/p>\n
It was a lesson her grandmother would embed in St. Louis as she grew up near Osaka. While her grandmother was not in a city hit by a nuclear weapon, her home of Yokkaichi burned to the ground during the war. Across the country, people were just trying to survive, St. Louis says.<\/p>\n
She said her grandma\u2019s experience helped her understand why peace is critical. It\u2019s a lesson she hopes to pass along to her daughter Momo, 13, who spoke at Thursday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow lucky we are now,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really important to recognize.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Louis says her grandmother taught her that people must take responsibility, doing what they can to encourage peace. That\u2019s why she and her daughter are regulars at the annual event.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe cares about people, she cares about the world, I think that\u2019s really important to us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Momo said she also feels attending the event is important, so she can learn about the horrors of nuclear war while passing down what she\u2019s been taught by her mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good that I have a connection to the history, so I can learn more, from my mom especially, because she\u2019s heard real stories from people who went through it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s important to share and pass down and then I can share the stories with other people too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several dignitaries including Deputy Mayor Janice Lukes and MLA David Pankratz, Manitoba\u2019s military envoy, spoke at the event, and for the first time, the gathering received a message of thanks from Hiroshima Mayor Matsui Kazumi.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t ROBERT LEE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Once completed, the lanterns were floated on the Memorial Park fountain.<\/p>\n The U.S. military attacks on the Japanese mainland cities \u2014 Aug. 6 (Hiroshima) and Aug. 9 (Nagasaki), 1945 \u2014 ushered in the end of Second World War, with an estimated 110,000 to 210,000 people killed, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists website.<\/p>\n The day after the bomb dropped, the Free Press front page bore the headline: \u201cAtomic Bomb Is So Powerful It Could Rend Globe Asunder,\u201d above a report detailing the attack on \u201cdeath-dealing\u201d explosive, which it said was like something out of a H.G Wells novel.<\/p>\n Now as the world again grapples with international conflict, organizers of the event said the importance of honouring those lost to war \u2014 especially nuclear war \u2014 and calling for a ban on nuclear arms carries with it a difference weight.<\/p>\n Rachel Reesor-Taylor, with Peace Alliance Winnipeg, says the peace movement is needed now, more than ever.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t forget it,\u201d said Saaya Hayashi, a Japanese citizen who has lived in Canada for 12 years. \u201cWe have to tell the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n Watching her children Tatsuki, eight, and Yoshiki, five, paint lanterns for peace with her husband Chris Dare, she said the two are trying to teach their children that war is not the answer.<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \u201cThey\u2019re innocent kids,\u201d said Dare. \u201cThey\u2019re an open canvas, so we\u2019re teaching them now that war is not good.\u201d<\/p>\n
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