Thursday vigil in Columbia will mark 70th anniversary of Hiroshima bomb

Some anniversaries are celebratory. Some are somber.

The 70th anniversary of the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima by the United States will be a solemn remembrance – but also one that is hopeful.

The Columbia Friends Meeting (Quakers) and the Carolina Peace Resource Center will come together Thursday night to commemorate the bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and of Nagasaki three days later. They also will convey a message of peace and hope that such devastation will not occur again.

“The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) has always been known for its Peace Testimony, believing that we are led to love those people who considered themselves enemies, and to refrain from all wars and fighting,” said Vigil chair Elaine Frick.

The Columbia Friends Meeting has been holding the peace vigil for 25 years, based on a belief that younger generations need to learn of the devastation caused by the atomic bombs and work together to eliminate nuclear weapons, Frick said.

“The Hiroshima Peace Vigil was started 25 years ago as a leading (a Quaker term for inspiration) from Rebecca Rogers,” Frick said. “She felt that it was important for the Columbia Friends Meeting, as one of the peace churches, to have a Hiroshima vigil to give people a time for reflection and/or prayer that was held, not in anger, but in love and hope for a more peaceful and just world. This year's vigil is dedicated to the memory of Rebecca, a past director of Carolina Peace Resource Center and a past clerk of the Columbia Friends Meeting.”

The vigil will be held from 7-8 p.m. in the auditorium of the Columbia Museum of Art, as part of downtown Columbia’s First Thursday on Main events. A string quartet from the S.C. Philharmonic, conducted by director Morihiki Nakahara, will perform.

Before the vigil, visitors can view exhibits including 12 posters from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, gather information from Carolina Peace Resource Center and Columbia Friends Meeting, and learn about paper crane folding. Paper cranes are an origami tradition started by Sadako Sasaki, who survived the bombing at the age of 2, but later died of leukemia believed to be caused by exposure to the atomic bomb. While she was sick, she folded more than 600 paper cranes. They have since become a symbol of world peace and remembrance of the bombings.

The vigil is free and open to the public. The Columbia Museum of Art is at 1515 Main St. in downtown Columbia.

Bridget Winston, Special to The State

This story was originally published August 5, 2015 at 2:07 PM.