After spending an unforgettable and powerful week at the Glastonbury Festival, the world’s largest music festival, from June 26-30, 2024, the Flame of Hope continues its global journey to New York in August to take part in two major commemorative events:
The 14th annual Bon-Odori Festival for Peace and the World Peace Interfaith Gathering, organized by the Heiwa Foundation.
At Glastonbury, the Flame of Hope was joined by a distinguished team of Israeli and Palestinian leaders committed to peace who have worked for reconciliation and change in Israel, Palestine and globally: Peace entrepreneur and TED 2024 speaker Maoz Inon, esteemed peacebuilder Hamze Awawde, activist Danielle Bett of Yachad, a leading British peace movement, and Ahmad Mukbel, a prominent peacebuilder and conflict resolution expert.
Together, the Flame of Hope and the peace delegates were featured at the festival’s Opening Ceremony and at a mass meditation event led by Flame of Hope founder Rev. Ryokyu Endo as well as Aminadabu, the official Flame of Hope band.
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki
August 6th and 9th represent the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively. As summer 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the launch of HOPE 80, it is critical to lay the foundation stones now to walk toward a nuclear-free and peaceful future and transform the suffering of the past to a bright future for all.
The traditional Japanese Buddhist “Bon-odori” Dance Festival held in August in Kingston, NY, is to observe "Obon", the ritual of remembering our ancestors and reconnecting with family and friends. The festival has expanded on this exciting summer event to celebrate community, clean energy, local green businesses, arts, and the spirit of healthy living to take steps toward a Nuclear-Free Future. Around 2,000 people are expected to attend.
On August 9th, 2024 in New York City, the Flame of Hope will join the Heiwa Foundation for “Beyond Hiroshima and Nagasaki: A Peace Gathering towards a World of Global Harmony.” The event will take place in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, across from the United Nations, to commemorate the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to call for an end to nuclear arms and weapons of all kinds. And on August 10th, the Flame of Hope will take part in an interfaith ceremony at St. Mark’s Church in downtown Manhattan.
HOPE 80: Yesterday’s Enemy Is Today’s Friend
The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. To take action to unify human beings, the descendants of the leaders during World War II will gather together and carry in their hands the Flame of Hope. They include:
Tushar Gandhi, great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi
Duncan Churchill Sandys, great grandson of Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Clifton Truman Daniel, eldest grandson of President Harry S. Truman
Hidetoshi Tojo, great grandson on Hidetoki Tosho, Prime minister of Japan during the second World War
Jennifer Teege, black granddaughter of SS Nazi concentration camp commander and war criminal Amon Göth
Magali Brosh, daughter of a highly decorated Israeli army pilot and 2nd generation Holocaust survivor
The descendants will tour the world as ambassadors of peace traveling from Hiroshima to Nagasaki to London and then from Washington DC to the United Nations in New York. Their goal will be to inaugurate the Flame of Hope next to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, the great-grandfather of one of the participants, Tushar Gandhi.
Descendants whose ancestors were once enemies will travel together and become today's friends, hoping to act as living symbols, like the Flame of Hope, to create a new and brighter page of human history.
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