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Nagasaki on August 9, 2001

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Mayor Itcho Ito of Nagasaki City read “The Nagasaki Peace Declaration” and warned that “the nuclear threat is now on the verge of expanding into space.” Ms. Sanae Ikeda, an atomic bomb survivor, gave a “Commitment to Peace” and a children’s choir sang “Kora no Mi Tamayo” (“The Spirit of Our Children”).

Prime Minister Koizumi stated, “Being the only country ever to have experienced nuclear devastation, Japan observes its Peace Constitution, firmly maintaining the Three Non-Nuclear Principles. Japan is also continuing to appeal to the international community for the abolition of nuclear weapons and realization of a permanent peace so that the horror of nuclear weapons may never again be repeated.”

Prime Minister Koizumi noted, “As regards the atomic bomb victims, I will continue to devote myself wholeheartedly to promoting support measures while taking into full consideration the circumstances of the atomic bomb victims who are advancing in years.”

After the end of the ceremony, Prime Minister Koizumi went to Megumi no Oka, a nursing home in Nagasaki, and visited some of the patients.

Nagasaki Peace Declaration

Prime Minister Koizumi visits Nagasaki 2001

Memorial prayers at Holy Trinity Church, Nagasaki on the anniversary of the atomic bombing August 2001

Trauma affecting health of Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors Japan Times, August 4, 2001

 see Hiroshima August 6, 2001
        Mayors for Peace August 2001

National Veterans Awareness Week November 2001

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President George W. Bush, XLIII, proclaimed November 11, 2001, as Veterans Day. He encouraged all Americans to observe November 11 through November 17, 2001, as National Veterans Awareness Week.

President George W. Bush, XLIII, 2001-2009                                                              Proclamation 7491–Veterans Day, 2001
October 30, 2001 

Why Memorial Day is Different from Veterans Day    The Washington Post

Anthem Veteran’s Memorial  WGN-TV Chicago

Pearl Harbor Memorial on December 7, 2001

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President George Bush marked the 2001 anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor by declaring December 7 as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. He flew to Virginia to give a speech aboard the USS Enterprise. He focused mainly on the threat of terrorism, but commented on the current relationship of Japan and the United States saying,

“Today our two navies are working side by side in the fight against terror. The bitterness of 60 years ago has passed away. The struggles of our war in the Pacific now belong to history.”

transcript of President Bush’s speech from Washington Post

USS ARIZONA  MEMORIAL  Oahu, Hawaii

The state of Hawaii and local businesses helped 600 New York City police officers, fire and family members of victims of September 11 attend the Pearl Harbor memorial services. The USS Arizona Memorial was closed to the public for ceremonies for Pearl Harbor survivors, their families, and guests. Twenty-one survivors from the USS Arizona attended with other veterans of Pearl Harbor, many wearing garrison caps with their ships’ names. Flowers were tossed “into the water to float amid the rainbow of oil still leaking from the USS  Arizona.” 

source A Date Which Will Live

Southeast Missourian article

NATIONAL MEMORIAL CEMETERY Punchbowl Crater Honolulu, Hawaii

Remembrances at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl Crater began at 10 a.m., The ceremony included “missing man” and B-52 bomber fly-overs, wreath laying, a joint color guard and a Marine Corps artillery salute.

Widows, children and other family members of rescue workers killed on September 11 were invited to the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association ceremony on Dec. 7 at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

The director Gene Castagnetti said, “Hopefully, they can look to the Pearl Harbor survivors as an example of how to cope with this burden that they will carry for the rest of their lives.”  They “could learn from the Pearl Harbor survivors and from the family members of those who did not survive about how to cope with that loss, knowing that to honor the spirit of your loved one, they would want you to go on and live the ideals of this nation.”    quoted from Honolulu Star Bulletin, December 2, 2001

60th anniversary

60th anniversary public events

60 Years Later, Pearl Harbor’s Arizona Haunts Visitors

HistoryNet.com Pearl Harbor

This year 2016 is the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. For more information, check this website, National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2016

9-11 Memorials

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This page is a work in progress, but for now, here are some links:

From Scholastic     Understanding September 11

From ALSC      Dealing with the Tragic Events of September 11, 2001

Talking to Children about 9-11 from the 9-11 memorial website

Reaction to 9/11   History Channel

article about the Unsung Hero of 9-11, Betty Ong

9-11 Memorial

9-11 Tribute Center

Flight 93 National Memorial Pennsylvania

National 9-11 Pentagon Memorial

Tower of Lights in New York City

Journey of Survivor Tree New York City

last living thing to leave that site; pear tree

the red envelope

museum

 

National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2016

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This year 2016 is the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. For more information, check this website, National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2016

Abe offers ‘everlasting condolences’ at Pearl Harbor as Obama praises partnership in peace  Japan Times

ISS International Space Station

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image credit:  NASA   Facilities around the world support the operation and management of the International Space Station.
 
 The United States., Russia, Canada, Japan, and the participating countries of the European Space Agency launched the International Space Station (ISS) in 1998. It is the largest space station ever constructed. Additions continue to be assembled in orbit. Astronauts from 15 countries have visited the ISS to date. It is a growing international collaboration.

For more information about the International Space Station check here.

Follow The International Space Station on Facebook.

To view the ISS in the night sky check NASA Skywatch Sightings at Spot the Station

videos from the ISS and a musical about the ISS can be found at the ISS Video Library

Search for the video Story Time from Space

Story Time From Space video can also be found on Youtube

Story Time from Space a non-profit education foundation

NASA Kids’ Club

PBS list of Space Books

 

Mamoru Mohri, Japan’s First Astronaut

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image credit:  NASA

Mamoru Mohri (spelling used on NASA site) was Japan’s first astronaut on STS-47, Spacelab-J, a cooperative venture between the United States and Japan, September 12-20, 1992. The crew conducted 44 experiments in life sciences and materials processing. Astronaut Mohri  performed experiments that were televised to children in classrooms in Japan.

From Feb. 11-22, 2000, he was a mission specialist as part of the international crew aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour, STS-99. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission mapped more than 47 million miles of the Earth’s land surface.

In an interview with Tokyo Weekender in 2001, he was asked about the inspiration for televising experiments to classrooms. He said he included the educational program as a tribute to Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space who perished in the NASA Challenger tragedy in 1986. Astronaut Mohri’s first televised experiment was a demonstration of weightlessness of an apple because Christa McAuliffe used an apple in her logo for her space classroom and in her NASA patch.

Mamoru Mohri is now the director of the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation which opened in Odaiba in 2001. He talks about the museum and space in an interview in Tokyo Weekender July 13, 2001.

For more information about Astronaut Mamoru Mohri’s see his bios at  NASA and JAXA.

Preflight STS-99 Interview

Interview at NTT Global IT innovator

Christa McAuliffe

McAuliffe Center Integrated Science Center

Chiaki Mukai, Japan’s First Woman Astronaut

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image credit :  NASA

Chiaki Mukai was selected as a payload specialist for the International Microgravity Laboratory on board the space shuttle Columbia in July 1994. She became the first woman Japanese astronaut.

During her second flight in 1998, she served on board the Discovery with John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth (1962). He said Mukai had “more energy than anyone I know of.”

On the seventh day on Discovery, during a conversation with Japan’s Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Yutaka Takeyama, the head of the Science and Technology Agency by communication link, Chiaki Mukai read a poem that she had written about being in space:

chuugaeri                                                                                                                                             nandomo dekiru                                                                                                                            mujuuryoku

weightlessness                                                                                                                                 turn space somersaults                                                                                                                       as many times as I like (translation from JAXA site)

The National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) asked the Japanese public to think of two lines with seven syllables to finish her poem making it a tanka with an overall rhythm of 5-7-5-7-7. NASDA also asked the public to come up with a name for her teddy bear, which she called Discovery’s eighth crew member. More than 40,000 people from inside of Japan and nearly 700 people from abroad took part in the competition. See the link below for the poem results.

Chiaki Muaki focused on medical and scientific experiments related to the effects of zero gravity. Kids on Earth conducted two of the same experiments to observe the germination of cucumbers and how corn and bean roots grow. Their findings were sent to NASDA. Mukai and NASDA staff compared their results to Mukai’s results on board Discovery. For more information see the link below.

Chiaki Mukai has received many awards for her contributions to science. France’s highest honor, the Legion of Honor, was awarded to her in February 2015 for her contribution to strengthen cooperation between France and Japan in the field of space exploration.

My Hero Project

NASA bio

Best Closing Lines for Mukai’s Poem Awarded, Kids Web Japan

School Kids Help Out with Space Shuttle Experiments, Kids Web Japan

JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency bio

Legion of Honor awarded by France Japan Times 2015

for information about other women at NASA  Women @NASA

Space View of New York City on September 11, 2001

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image and text credit:  NASA

Visible from space, a smoke plume rises from the Manhattan area after two planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center. This photo was taken of metropolitan New York City (and other parts of New York as well as New Jersey) the morning of September 11, 2001. “Our prayers and thoughts go out to all the people there, and everywhere else,” said Station Commander Frank Culbertson of Expedition 3, after the terrorists’ attacks. The following day, he posted a public letter that captured his initial thoughts of the events as they unfolded. “The world changed today. What I say or do is very minor compared to the significance of what happened to our country today when it was attacked.” Upon further reflection, Culbertson said, “It’s horrible to see smoke pouring from wounds in your own country from such a fantastic vantage point. The dichotomy of being on a spacecraft dedicated to improving life on the earth and watching life being destroyed by such willful, terrible acts is jolting to the psyche, no matter who you are.”

Source: New York City on September 11, 2001

Commander Frank Culbertson’s NASA bio

Culbertson’s Letter from Sept. 11, 2001