In 1945, after the United States bombed Hiroshima a man named Mr. Yamamoto collected some of the embers left from the bombing and took them back to his home.
Mr. Yamamoto was filled with hostility because of the bombing. His grandmother preserved the embers and kindled a flame which was used to illuminate the family's Buddhist altar. While this fire symbolized for Mr. Yamamoto anger, for his grandmother it symbolized love, memory of her son who had died.
Over the next twelve years Mr. Yamamoto's grandmother tended the fire. During this time Mr. Yamamoto underwent a complete change of heart and the flame transformed into a flame of love for him as well.
In 1968 a "Peace Monument Flame" was inaugurated in the village of Hoshino. Mr. Yamamoto's flame became a symbol for world peace and other flames were kindled from it and set up across Japan.
From these original embers of Hiroshima a fire was carried across the United States.
Beginning January 15, 2002, people from all over the world walked across the United States carrying a flame left from the embers of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. They walked for world peace, disarmament, to end the Star Wars Missile Defense Program, and to save mother earth from further destruction.
The above transcript was edited from a story by Tim Dostou.
