“December 7th Commemoration” was held at 7:45 am on the lawn of
USS Arizona Memorial visitor center facing Pearl Harbor.

This is an official memorial service held by American people
to honor the persons killed in the Pearl Harbor attack
by the Japanese force early morning on December 7, 1941.

I could sit on a reserved seat with a support from a wife and a husband
who had been invited to this ceremony officially.

I don't mention the details of the ceremony here
(I might report about it elsewhere later),
there was a time called “Moment of Silence”
around 8 am in the morning.

At that time, part of the bridge of the Ford Island (Navy’s territory)
had been removed, and a battleship was coming through the opened part of
the bridge (that is from the right side of Pearl Harbor).
On the battleship were many sailors standing with a constant distance
from each other and giving a salute quietly.

As the battleship was going through the opened bridge,
there began to appear a beautiful rainbow in the sky.
The battleship was sliding on the sea smoothly,
going from the right side to the left,
and passing USS Arizona Memorial and USS Missouri.



The colors of the rainbow became thicker and clearer, and finally
there was a perfect double rainbow in the sky.
It was so beautiful.
(the original photo file is HERE)

The time was exactly the same when the Pearl Harbor attack
was being performed 59 years ago.
(first wave of the attack was 7:55 am,
explosion of USS Arizona was 8:10 am,
and the photo above was taken at 8:04 am)

It was our original wish to make a bridge between Pearl Harbor
and Hiroshima with our sincere prayer for peace.

I dedicate this photo to Ms. Keiko Nakamichi, a member of WPPS in Hiroshima,
who created this vision together. Thank you, Keiko.

And again, I would like to say thank you, all the people,
who supported “International Peace Ceremony at Pearl Harbor”
held on USS Missouri on December 2, 2000.
Thank you very much.

Yasuyuki NEMOTO, e-mail: ynemoto@pp.iij4u.or.jp