In August 2022, the Peace Pole has been restored to People’s Park, thanks to the efforts of Berkeley community member Aurora and local Earth Church members and members of the Berkeley People’s Park community. The Peace Pole movement was started by Masahisa Goi, who made her first Peace Pole in response to the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and now has thousands of Peace Poles placed worldwide. See the Wikipedia article for a quick overview of the Peace Pole movement.
Local Earth church members have felt called to contribute to People’s Park at this crucial juncture, and have created a new Peace Pole to replace the one that was placed in the park many years ago by early park community members.
Below are photos of the new Peace Pole, placed amongst the piles of wood chips and logs that were recently dumped by UC Berkeley over large areas of the park, an act of disturbing violence, deeply insulting Berkeley’s park users and destroying the large areas of the park used for recreation by UC Berkeley students and the Berkeley community. This war-like destructive ‘bombing’ is met by the non-violent action of Berkeley community members restoring the Peace Pole, inscribed with the message “May Peace Prevail On Earth” in several languages.
Also included are several historical photos of the original Peace Pole, including it’s wonderful circular flower garden created by generous Berkeley volunteer gardeners, and a hand-carved totem pole that was under the large Redwood trees on the Northwest side of the park, and one of Nature’s own ‘Peace Poles’, a majestic flower stalk of the ‘Century Plant’ (Agave americana), a type of agave plant from arid climates.
— Greg Jalbert
So beautiful and such a reminder just before the 77th anniversary of the nuclear bombings by the U.S. of Hiroshima (8/6) and Nagasaki (8/9), Japan.
Thank you for this prayer pole for peace to stand again in People’s Park, in harmony with peace poles worldwide. May Peace Prevail On Earth. So mote it be!
This is an ongoing tribute to how long our community has been fighting to maintain People’s Park as just that. I lost a friend in the struggle who was killed when someone stole his helmet and later he was knocked off his motorcycle & killed. I think of him and of others who sacrificed to make sure that People’s Park would stay and not be turned into student housing. Berkeley needs a place of refuge for people who don’t have one. The peace poles send the message that the supporters of People’s Park are in support of stopping wars all over the world. Not a bad message to send.