Santa Fe Mayor, Larry Delgado, declared the Second Annual Peace Day in Santa Fe to honor the Children's Peace Statue which is the first International Children's Peace Statue in the world. This observance is in unity with the 53rd annual Peace Day declared by the Japanese in 1947 on the second anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Peace Day - 2000 is dedicated to our children and future generations of the Earth.

At least 60,000 origami Peace cranes from around the world and local communities were hung by the children on the Children's Peace Statue. The folding of Peace cranes and the creation of the Children's Peace Statue was inspired by a true story of a Japanese girl, Sadako, who died 10 years after the bombing from leukemia which was known by the Japanese as "Atom Bomb Disease". She folded the first Peace crane. We are participating in a global initiative to fold a million cranes for Peace each year.

Hiroshima survivor, Takashi Tanemori told his prophetic dream, The Crane and the Butterfly, of encountering the mythic crane, Senba-Zuru, on the night before the bombing when he was 8 years old.

During the telling of his vision about meeting the crane, when Takashi described how the embers from the explosion became butterflies and flew heavenward, children in the audience released beautiful live Monarch butterflies to highlight of his story. The beauty of this act was nothing less than stunning, and the gasps were followed by silence as the crowd watched the colorful Monarchs dance and float like stained glass in the sunny breeze.

This dream played a major role in Takashi's journey from revenge to forgiveness. He now directs the Silkworm Peace Institute for Forgiveness.

A theater company of Japanese Elder Mothers, Soyokaze (meaning "Gentle Breeze"), shared traditional songs and dance. They came from Japan with readings to open the heart excerpted from testimony of mothers and children from Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

The Divine-Wow Theater Troupe from Studio 848 - San Francisco performed a dance of forgiveness in honor of Takashi's story. Together with members from the Wise Fools Puppet Intervention they announced Peace Day to the community in street performance all around Santa Fe.