Mr. Rosario Manisera of Associazione culturale italo giapponese Fuji, a friend of Mr. Duilio Zogno who led the project in Brescia, Italy in 2000, introduced the project and tree planting was carried out at 3 sites, Aleardi Nursery School, Rivoltella Nursery School and the Garden Center.
On the day of the tree planting, the tree planting ceremony at Rivoltella Nursery school was held in the morning and the ceremony at Aleardi Nursery School was held at 3pm. A lot of children from the school and their parents gathered and they planted a seedling in the presence of Mr. Ebinuma in the schoolyard. A number of persimmon tree pictures were pasted on the school windows and an original dance theater piece of the story of the bombed persimmon tree was performed by the children at the center of the school with light music. They surrounded the tree and danced together in a circle. At the end, they released the persimmon-colored balloons into the sky. There were something like leaves that tied to the balloons and a poem was written on those leaves: “We grow like a persimmon tree and comes the spring. In winter we keep our heads down and dress with the rain of sorrow in the fall. We soak in the sun and branch, and as we twist the hands around like the branches, our bodies are filled.” It was a delightful ceremony filled with sparkling energy of the children.
