Peace Pole dedicated at Pennswood Village Peace Pole, Newtown, Pennsylvania-USA
May 30, 2024
Mira Nakashima and her husband, Jonathan Yarnall, were featured speakers at Pennswood Village in Newtown for the recent dedication of Pennswood’s new Peace Pole.
The new Pennswood Village Peace Pole is a six-sided cedar pole with plaques of “May Peace Prevail On Earth” in twelve languages: French, Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Spanish, German, Ukrainian, Italian, Hindi, Arabic, Hebrew, and English. It replaces the older Peace Pole of three languages first dedicated at Pennswood Village in 2001.
The idea of the Peace Pole began in Japan in 1955 where the first Peace Pole was constructed in 1983. The Peace Pole symbolizes the wish “for peace in the world for all children everywhere,” that there will never again be a Nagasaki or a Hiroshima or a Pearl Harbor.
There is now a vast network of more than 230,000 Peace Poles that have been dedicated in over two hundred countries. The Peace Poles are made of wood, limestone, copper, plastic, and stainless steel. There are Peace Poles at the north magnetic pole, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, the Egyptian Pyramids in Giza, and the Aika Shrine in Iwama, Japan. One of the world’s largest Peace Poles, at 52 feet, is in Janesville, Wisconsin and a former grain elevator in Minneapolis is painted as a gigantic Peace Pole.
In her remarks at the Pennswood Village Peace Pole dedication, Nakashima shared her wish that these world-wide Peace Poles will soon be joined by four more Nakashima Altars of Peace on the remaining four continents.
The Pennswood program also included music by the Pennswood Chorale, the Pennswood Singers and remarks by Dan Murray, executive director of Pennswood Village, Kay Marik, and Bob Anderson. In closing, everyone present said in unison: We rededicate ourselves to peace in the world for all children everywhere.
Pennswood Village is a unique and welcoming Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) located in Newtown, PA on a beautiful 82-acre campus. The not-for-profit, standalone community was founded 40 years ago as a place for seniors to enrich their minds, bodies, and spirits. A diverse community accepting of all faiths, Pennswood embraces the Quaker principles and traditions of equality, integrity, stewardship, simplicity, peace, and non-violence. Residents enjoy apartment home living with a multitude of services and amenities that enable them to pursue interests and volunteer opportunities. When the need arises, Pennswood also offers on-campus healthcare with our own physicians and nurse practitioners, as well as Personal Care and Skilled Nursing residences for its residents.