About 30 people gathered at Truby King Recreation Reserve on Saturday to plant a ginkgo tree to mark the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the final days of World War 2.
Waikouaiti Coast Community Board chairman Alasdair Morrison began the ceremony with a minute’s silence at 11.02am, the exact moment on August 9, 1945, when a plutonium bomb destroyed Nagasaki.
"We are here this morning to remember and reflect."
Planting the ginkgo was a powerful gesture linking two cities an ocean apart.
"I hope this tree will grow tall and strong and that students in this city that pass by it in the future will pause and reflect, not only on Hiroshima’s past, but on the hope it represents."
Dunedin-Otaru Sister City Society secretary Nathan Woodfield reflected on 45 years of ties with Japan.
After the speeches, people laid soil at the base of the ginkgo, which joined two others already planted in the reserve.
All three trees are direct descendants of a Ginkgo biloba that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Seeds from this tree were given in 2017 by the Green Legacy Hiroshima initiative to Dunedin Botanic Garden, with support from the Rotary Club of Dunedin Central.
