The 26th Annual Interfaith Peace Ceremony to Commemorate the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings was held this week at the Japan Society in New York City.

Ringing of the Peace Bell. Video: Stewardship Report.

New York, N.Y. Organized by the Rev. Dr. T.K. Nakagaki, founder of the Heiwa Peace & Reconciliation Foundation, this is the 26th year the bombings have been commemorated in New York. The event drew attention to rising authoritarianism around the world coupled with an upswing of White Nationalism and general racism and xenophobia in the United States. It offered thoughts, prayers – and a call for action.

“T.K.” is a Japanese Buddhist priest, Hiroshima Peace Ambassador, Peace Correspondent of Nagasaki, President/Founder of the Heiwa Peace and Reconciliation Foundation of New York; Former President of the Buddhist Council of New York has organized this Annual Interfaith Peace Gathering since 1994.

Video: Stewardship Report.

At 7:15pm, the exact moment of the Hiroshima bombing (8:15 Aug. 6th Japan time), a bell for peace was rung on stage by the interfaith leaders gathered.

Video: Stewardship Report.

Interfaith representatives across the East Coast attended, including Rev. Dr. T. Kenjitsu Nakagaki, Rev. Susana Bastarrica, Bidita Rahman Bhuiyan, Rev. Chloe Breyer, Guru Dileepji Maharaj, Pastor Haye Frank, Rev. Jiro Mihama, Ven. Rifa Shi, and Dr. Kazuko Tatsumura, along with musicians and choirs from Japan and the United States.

Dr. Kazuko Hillyer Tatsumura, a Shinto priest, is founder of Gaia Holistic Foundation of New York and vice president of bothOrphans International Worldwide and the J. Luce Foundation. Rabbi Michael Feinberg was unable to attend.

Messages from the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were read by representatives from associations of local Japanese residents who originally hail from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.