Hiroshima peace park and Pearl Harbour memorial park to cooperate and share experiences under new US-Japan deal to promote peace and friendship
- The US and Japan have signed a sister park agreement between the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan, and the Pearl Harbour National Memorial in Hawaii
- Pearl Harbour was the site of the attack that brought the US into World War II, while Hiroshima was the first city to be attacked with a US atomic bomb
Hiroshima and Pearl Harbour, two symbols of World War II animosity between Japan and the United States, are promoting peace and friendship through a sister park arrangement.
US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui signed a sister park agreement on Thursday for Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park and the Pearl Harbour National Memorial in Hawaii.
“Nobody can go to Pearl Harbour, and nobody can go to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and enter the front door, walk out the exit and be the same person,” Emanuel said at the signing ceremony at the American embassy in Tokyo.
“I think the hope here is that we inspire people from all over the United States and all over Japan to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and to visit Pearl Harbour so they can learn the spirit of reconciliation,” Emanuel said.
Under the arrangement, the two parks will promote exchanges and share experiences in restoring historic structures and landscapes, the use of virtual reality and digital images for preservation and education, and best practices in youth education and tourism management, the embassy said.