“Days of Peace and Remembrance” Sunrise Bell Ringing [Oak Ridge, TN]

Manhattan Project National Historical Park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee is asking all those who are interested to help ring the International Friendship Bell at Bissell Park 81 times at dawn (6:48 am ET) Wednesday, August 6th to commemorate the number of years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. In addition, an hour before dawn park rangers will light luminarias that have been decorated with messages of peace by community members. The luminarias will remain lit throughout the commemoration event. An Oak Ridge Civic Music Association quartet will be on site throughout the event to provide accompanying music.

Members of the public are invited to take turns ringing the bell. Each person can ring the bell for whatever reason that speaks to them. They can ring the bell for lives lost; they can ring the bell for social justice; they can ring the bell for service and sacrifice; they can ring the bell for peace. After each bell-ringer has rung the bell, they are invited to record the reason why they rang the bell. Small pieces of paper and pens will be provided. Bell-ringers will then place the paper in a receptable, and park staff will later catalog the papers for historical purposes.

The Park understands that not everyone who wants to ring the bell will be able to come to the August 6 event. Therefore a virtual bell ringing option will be available on the park’s webpage  from 6:00 am EDT on August 6 through midnight PDT on August 9. The International Friendship Bell is a symbol of unity and will carry the message of peace and international friendship into the future. At nearly seven feet tall and five feet wide, this 8,300-pound bronze bell hangs at A. K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where the uranium for the world’s first atomic weapons was manufactured. Designed in Oak Ridge and cast in Kyoto, Japan, the relief panels on the bell show peaceful imagery inspired by Tennessee, Japan, and the tragedies of war between the two nations.

Established in 2015, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park preserves and interprets the nationally significant historic sites, stories, and legacies associated with the top-secret race to develop atomic weapons during World War II. In August of 1945, the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. This helped to bring an end to WWII and forever obligated future generations to live in a profoundly changed and nuclear world.

The Manhattan Project quickly grew from its New York Manhattan District headquarters to more than 30 top-secret sites around the country. The smaller sites supported work at the project’s three primary centers of operations: Hanford, Washington; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Most of the research, innovation, production, and weapons fabrication occurred at these three locations.