THE INTERNATIONAL FRIENDSHIP BELL

In the early 1990s, after considering several projects to provide a lasting legacy for Oak Ridge's ^50th anniversary, the Oak Ridge Community Foundation approved the creation of this bell, the International Friendship Bell, as an expression of "hope for eternal peace, friendship and understanding between all peoples of the world". Funding for the project was provided in part by Oak Ridge and in part by its Japanese twin town, Naka-shi. The bell is a traditional Japanese bell in solid bronze, 1.4 m in diameter, 2 m high and weighing 3,750 kg. It was manufactured in 1993 by the Japanese foundry Sotetsu Iwazawa (Kyoto) and delivered in October of the same year. The outer face of the bell features the distinctive signs of Tennessee and Japan (official flowers, trees and birds) and the important dates that marked the Pacific War (Pearl Harbor - December 7, 1941 and VJ-Day - August 14, 1945, Hiroshima - August 6, 1945 and Nagasaki - August 9, 1945). The ornaments are the work of Oak Ridge artist Susanna Harris. On the inside of the bell, the founder's name and the words Made in Japan are clearly engraved.