Calls for World Peace Stretch to Quiet Ishigaki Park

Day 33, 2024 Majestic Japan

Friday, Oct. 4, 2024; Ishigaki, Japan

The beauty of Ishigaki lies north on the island at Kabira Bay, “where on a sunny day the blue, turquoise and emerald-green water contrasts against the white sand beaches.” At least, that’s what I wrote last February when we stopped here on the world cruise. We lacked bright sunshine that day, but the views still were impressive.

Today I didn’t see any of that, but considered us lucky that we got here at all. For several days, Capt. Mark Trembling and his team have monitored the progress of Typhoon Krathon as it approached nearby Taiwan, putting our stop in Ishigaki at risk.

Fortunately, the storm either abated or turned (or both), and we docked as planned. My Wunderground weather app showed rain likely off and on, but I managed to time my venture ashore between light showers, and the expected downpours didn’t happen.

A good sense of direction, combined with having been here just eight months ago, led me to a covered shopping street common to many of these Japanese tourist ports. The storefronts boasted Orion beer t-shirts (brewed in nearby Okinawa), other souvenirs and colorful boxes of what I assume were culinary treats. If I were interested, I could have used my Google Translate app to identify them.

I just walked on, passing by an Orion distribution warehouse, another decorated manhole cover and lushly decorated restaurants and bars. I was searching for something that might lead to an interesting watercolor. Due to the humid air combined with occasional misty rain, I hadn’t brought my art supplies, but I figured I could paint later on the ship.

A few blocks away I came across the Shin-Ei Park and the World Peace Bell, a discovery that led me to learn about the international peace bell initiative.

It started with a single Japanese man, Chiyoji Nakagawa, who in 1951 proposed to the new United Nations that a bell be cast from coins and medals from around the world as a symbol of the wish for peace. Today that original Japanese Peace Bell is in the Japanese Gardens at the UN Headquarters in New York City. Chiyoji also commissioned 150 replicas to be distributed to countries around the world.

The bell in Ishigaki is one of three replicas in Japan (the others are in Osaka and Wakkanai City, Hokkaido). Given such a noble background, I was a bit disappointed to discover the Ishigaki peace bell sitting with little fanfare or distinction in a mostly deserted park. In fact, for the first time in Japan I saw trash strewn on the grounds.

Even though this is my fourth visit to Japan, it is only after visiting Hiroshima, Nagasaki and now the World Peace Bell in Ishigaki that I have come to appreciate the Japanese desire for peace.

I admit I am conflicted that, to me, this desire for peace seems to stem more from the horror of the atomic bombs than from the cruelty of the war before that. Regardless of the motive, it’s a sentiment I’m sure we all support.

One thing I have learned through my travels is that history is always complex. There is so much I don’t know. I will never fully understand the experiences that shape the perceptions of others. I can fully appreciate this desire for peace. As the English translation on the plaque at Ishigaki’s World Peace Bell concludes:

“We, the citizen of Ishigaki, continue to appeal for no-war world and the realization of world permanent peace and to disseminate the desire for peace, as a citizen with a peace bell made by the same idea as UN Peace Bell.”