Last year, students at Ke Kula ‘O Nawahiokalani‘opu‘u, a Hawaiian language immersion school in Keaau, created a lei of 1,000 paper cranes symbolizing world peace and in memory of atomic bomb victims in Japan.
Last year, students at Ke Kula ‘O Nawahiokalani‘opu‘u, a Hawaiian language immersion school in Keaau, created a lei of 1,000 paper cranes symbolizing world peace and in memory of atomic bomb victims in Japan.
They made the lei after they learned the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who died of leukemia at age 12 after being exposed to radiation through the bombing of Hiroshima.
Last summer, during the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings, kumu pilialoha Kimiko Tomita Smith made the journey to Hiroshima to dedicate Nawahi’s first lei to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
This year, Nawahi students continued the mission by making a lei for Nagasaki.
With patience, intent and concentration they created another lei to show their strong commitment to make the world a more peaceful place.
This two-year peace project culminated June 13 when Tomita Smith hand-delivered the lei to Nagasaki Peace Memorial Park, the site where the second atomic bomb was dropped.
“The lei contains Nawahi students’ collective wishes for world peace,” Tomita Smith said. “I hope they have learned the true meaning of peace through this project, and their prayers for world peace were conveyed to many people.”