Human beings and nuclear weapons cannot co-exist. I am writing from downtown Nagasaki where I have been attending the 2018 World Conference Against Atom and Hydrogen Bombs. Three days ago, we commemorated the 73rd anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima. There, on a hot, clear August...

Just as the initiation of recent student led advocacy from Parkland, Florida brings hope for positive change in this country, so too have students in Japan addressed the issue of nuclear disarmament in their country by sharing the stories of nuclear blast survivors.

On the morning of August 6, seventy years after the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb, I was in Hiroshima. I entered sacred time and space in a ceremonial ritual at a place called “The Mound”—said to contain remains of the 70,000 people incinerated in the blast. A Buddhist monk stood before an...

Florence Caplow is a Soto Zen priest in the Suzuki Roshi lineage, and a dharma teacher, field botanist, UU seminarian at Iliff School of Theology, essayist, and editor. She was the recipient of the UUA’s Tsubaki Grand Shrine Scholarship in 2015 and is currently on her visit with the Shrine.

The I am writing you this letter from the train station in Osaka, Japan, where thirty-seven All Souls pilgrims—ages 12 to 82—are waiting for a train to Kyoto. This morning as we departed Hiroshima Station, our host families from the Rissho Kosei Kai Dharma Center waved goodbye to us from the...

[gallery type="rectangular" ids="6718,6716,6717,6719,6721,6722,6720,6723"] The Heiwa Peace Pilgrimage delegation began its journey on August 1st and will be visiting with their interfaith partners in Japan for ten days....

Sarah E. Gillespie is a UU seminarian & 2014 M.Div candidate at Andover Newton Theological School. In July 2013 she was the recipient of the...

view our available interfaith and Unitarian Universalist (UU) resources. Perhaps one of the most inspiring stories to come out of this difficult time is the story of the Hiroshima Children's Drawings: Shortly after the bombing in Hiroshima in 1945, Rev. A. Powell Davies of the All Souls Church,...

Today is the second anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011. The massive destruction and loss of human life was compounded by the threat of radiation from four damaged nuclear reactors....

Among the greatest gifts of crossing religious and cultural boundaries is that we come to understand ourselves more clearly. On this trip to Japan I had the opportunity to visit briefly other religious partners: the Konko Church of Izuo (a modern Shinto movement), the Tsubaki Grand Shrine (one of...

The visual parallels between the atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima and the tsunami that hit Japan’s northeast coast a year ago are eerie. In Hiroshima we saw once more the famous photographs of Hiroshima before and after the bomb. In Kamaichi and Sendai the signs of breathtaking devastation are...

The word “Hiroshima” has become synonymous with the horrors of nuclear war. Unfortunately, we need to be horrified now and then. We need to see and feel just how terrible war is and how particularly horrifying nuclear war would be. A visit to Hiroshima’s Peace Park and the Memorial Museum both...

Kyoto, 5 a.m. March 6— I have often spoken and written about the importance of hospitality–about how hospitality is a spiritual practice. In the first two days of our visit to Japan I have felt as though I were attending a workshop in advanced hospitality. Our friends and partners from the...

UUA President Rev. Peter Morales is in the midst of a week-long visit with interfaith partners in Japan. On Sunday, Rev. Morales attended the worship service at the historic Universalist church in Tokyo: Dojin Church. Members of the Tokyo Unitarian Fellowship (a largely ex-pat group) met with him...

From March 3 – 12, 2012 Rev. Peter Morales, UUA President, will travel to Japan to visit with a number of historic interfaith partners. The visit will also provide Rev. Morales with an opportunity to extend congratulatory greetings to Rissho Kosei-kai during its annual “Founding Day.” The...

From March 3 - 12, 2012 Rev. Peter Morales, UUA President, will travel to Japan to visit with a number of historic interfaith partners. These include: Rissho Kosei-kai (RKK) - a 6-million member lay-Buddhist organization headquartered in Tokyo....

On Saturday October 22, a delegation of twenty-three Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) for the day. Leading the group on an East Coast tour was the former chairman of Rissho Kosei-kai, Rev. Norio Sakai, who presented gifts and greetings to President Rev. Peter Morales and Gini Courter, on...

Tsubaki Grand Shrine. In my first three days here, I have been given Shinto priest clothing to wear, been introduced to the shrine’s ceremonies, and worn a loincloth while shouting at the top of my lungs and then standing under a freezing-cold waterfall. I’ve also eaten more fish than I have in...

That fateful summer, 8:15. The roar of a B-29 breaks the morning calm. A parachute opens in the blue sky. Then suddenly, a flash, an enormous blast—silence—hell on Earth... August 6th marks the 66th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. The UUA's International Office has a helpful...