ORIZURU PEACE TREE

“Orizuru Peace Tree” at the 32nd Matsuri Kauai

“Orizuru Peace Tree” will be one of the main attraction at the 32nd Matsuri Kauai on Saturday, October 7 at Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall in Lihue from 9 am-3:00 pm. The event is free and open to the public.

“Orizuru”, a Japanese folded paper crane using ‘origami’ (folding paper) is dedicated to Sadako Sasaki, a young girl from Hiroshima who survived the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 but succumbed to leukemia caused by the fallout, and died October 25, 1955 at the age of 12. Sadako’s mission to fold 1000 cranes (senbazuru) so she can get well while hospitalized became a symbol of peace and hope throughout the world. The Orizuru tree is also dedicated in memory of Mrs. Aiko Nakaya of Pakala who taught origami and Japanese folk dance for many years on Kauai. She passed away in June 2017.

People attending the festival can fold orizuru at the special folding table, and place it at the designated Orizuru Peace Tree area which will be on display in the convention hall. Origami papers are provided, compliments of Kauai’s 4 sister cities in Japan, Ishigaki, Okinawa; Iwaki, Fukushima; Moriyama, Shiga and Suo Oshima, Yamaguchi as well as Kyoto and Hiroshima.

The festival is part of the 20th anniversary celebration of State of Hawaii and Hiroshima Prefecture Sister State (1997-2017). In July 2017, Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho made courtesy visits with Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki with Kauai Yankees Little League team when they played games with 3 Hiroshima Little League teams.

More than 30 guests from Kauai’s sister city of Suo Oshima and Iwaki as well as special guest, Mr. Katsukuni Tanaka, a Hiroshima bomb survivor will attend this year’s Kauai Matsuri . Pearl Shimizu, president of Kauai Japanese Cultural Society which hosts the festival encourages everyone, especially people with ancestral roots in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to visit the Orizuru Peace Tree display to help promote and perpetuate world peace and abolishment of nuclear arms. For more information, please call Pearl Shimizu at 822-5353 or Art Umezu at Office of Economic Development at 241-4948.