| Peace & Friendship Monuments
Initiated by Rotary International |
See below for special section on Rotary Peace Monuments from Wagga Wagga, NSW (Australia).
Click here for website of Rotary International, Chicago, Illinois (USA).
Click here for webpage on Rotary peace & friendship monuments maintained by Rotary Global History Fellowship (RGHF), Pueblo, Colorado (USA).
Right click image to enlarge.
| 1930's - Friendship Trees. A Rotary tradition perpetuated by Rotary founder Paul Harris. Among the cities in which he planted Friendship Trees during his travel are Berlin (Germany), Tallin (Latvia), Helsingfors (Finland), Gothenburg and Stockholm (Sweden), Bergen (Norway), Shanghai, (China), Tokyo (Japan), Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Launceston, Melbourne and Sydney (Australia), Auckland, Dunedin and Wellington (New Zealand), Mexico City (Mexico), Panama City (Panama), Bogotá (Colombia), Lima (Peru), Santiago and Valparaiso (Chile), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Montevideo (Uruguay), and Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo (Brazil). (Source "My Road To Rotary.") Photo shows Harris planting a Friendship Tree in Newcastle in 1935.
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|   August 1941 - Rotary Peace Memorial, Mount Evans, Colorado (USA). Sundial on summit of Mount Evans 14,264 feet (4,350 meters) above sea level. Can be reached by the highest paved road in North America. Marks convention in Denver attended only by Rotarians from USA, Canada, Mexico & Cuba (due to the difficulty of international travel durng WW-II).
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|  1946? - Japanese Temple Bell, Atlanta, Georgia (USA).
Cast in 1747 in Tokyo. Found in an Atlanta warehouse. Returned to Jodoji Temple by Rotary Clubs of Atlanta & Yokosuka in May 1961 during ceremony in Yokosuka (Japan). All information from Tuscaloosa News, May 30, 1961. Much more to know about this bell. Where is "Jodoji Temple"? Very likely a WW-II trophy (like other Japanese bells in Duluth, Topeka & Lexington, VA). Too bad it wasn't retained (as in Boston) to symbolize peace or friendshp. 
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| May 9, 1966 - Statue of Peace ("New Leaves"), Hiroshima (Japan). By sculptor Katsuzo Entsuba. Built by Hiroshima South District Rotary Club. Inscribed with poem by Dr. Hideki Yukawa (first Nobel laureate from Japan): "O god of evil, do not come this way again. This place is reserved for those who pray for peace."
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|  1997 - Plaza of Peace & Friendship, Rotary Peace Park, Calle Iturbide, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco (Mexico). Park, peace pole & plaque next to the main cathedral & city hall [El Palacio Municipal], according to Entry #1385 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001). Not found when area combed in December 2006. Image scanned from Bennett.
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|   1998 - International Peace Plaza, Rotary Park, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada).
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| Date? - Rotary Mural, Culiacan, Sinaloa (Mexico). Depicts the fight against polio. Includes dove of peace & handshake of friendship.
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| Date? - Monumento Rotario a la Paz, Matamoros (Mexico).
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|  Date? - Monumento Rotario a la Paz (Pau), Manresa (Spain). "Como Administradores de las Fiestas de la Luz de Manresa, el R.C Manresa-Bages ha inaugurado un Monumento a la Paz (Pau) en una de las entradas a la ciudad de Manresa y hará donación a la Ciudad de este Monumento Rotario que simboliza el espiritud de paz de toda la ciudad."
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|  November 11, 2001 - Ring of Peace, First United Methodist Church, Beech & 2nd Streets, Casper, Wyoming (USA). By Chris Navarro. "You may remember that Matthew Shepherd, a young gay man, was murdered by homophobes in Laramie, Wyoming, in the late 1990s. There's nothing in Laramie to commemorate him, but if you visit the website his parents created, they recommend you see a statue called the Ring of Peace in Casper, that's dedicated first to Matthew, and also to the victims of the Columbine shootings [and 9/11]... a nice idea, but it's just sad how run down and crappy it looks. It was possible for me to take a nice picture of it, but only if I was very careful to crop out almost all the surroundings."
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|  July 17, 2004 - Peace Pole, White Pines Park, Arnold, Calaveras County, California (USA). Replaces peace pole cut down in July 2003.
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|  Date? - Rotary Peace Park, Vegreville, Alberta (Canada). Near the Ukrainian pysanka (giant Easter egg).
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|  Date? - Rotary Peace Park, Downtown on Yukon River, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory (Canada).
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|  2004 - Rotary Peace Park, Parksville, British Columbia (Canada).
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|  2005. - Rotary International Peace Park, RIM Park, Waterloo, Ontario (Canada).
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From website of the Rotary Club of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales (Austraia): "The concept of Rotary District D9700 Community Peace Cities/Towns was conceived in Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia, by Rotarian Tony Quinlivan. The city became the first Peace Community on 23 February 1993 with the Community Peace Monument being unveiled by PRIP Royce Abbey and local Mayor Pat Brassil. Since then, 58 Peace Communities have been proclaimed in 17 countries around the globe."
From a May 1999 newsletter: "On February 23, 1993, the first peace monument was unveiled by Past World President Royce Abbey and the then Mayor Pat Brassil declared the City of Wagga Wagga the first Rotary Peace City in the world. There now are more than 20 peace counties, cities and towns in different countries in the world. Manila, in the Philippines, was the second Rotary Peace City to be declared on June 22, 1994, and the first outside Australia.
Soon to follow were Port Washington, Wisconsin, U.S.A.; KBE and Ibaraki, Japan; East London, South Africa; Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.; Hiroshima, Japan; Cannes, France; the County and City of Los Angeles and the City of Montebello, California, U.S.A; Milledgeville and Baldwin County, Georgia, U.S.A; Windhoek, Namibia, Africa; Gifu City, Japan; Zamboanga City, Philippines; Parksville, British Columbia, Canada; Coolamon, N.S.W., Cities of Makati and Davao, Philippines, and Lockhart, N.S.W. Cities of Makati, Philippines, and Lockhart, N.S.W., were declared Rotary Peace Cities on February 23, 1999, and Davao City in the Philippines on February 26, 1999. The first Rotary Peace City Conference was held at East Los Angeles in June, 1996, organised and chaired by Past President Paul Warner of the Rotary Club of the East Los Angeles. Representatives came from Rotary Peace Cities around the world."
|   February 23, 1993 - Ivan Jack Drive, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales (Australia).
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|  Date? - Quezon Memorial Circle, Quezon City (Philippines).
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|  July 18, 1996 - Baldwin County Courthouse, Milledgeville, Georgia (USA).
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|  1996 - East Los Angeles Community College, East Los Angeles, California (USA).
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| 1998 - Valadolid (Spain).
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|  Date? - American Memorial Park Saipan, (Northern Mariana Islands).
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|  December 12, 2003 - Chandigahr, Punjab (India).
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|  February 23, 2006 - Queen Sirikit Park, Pratumnak Hill,
Pattaya (Thailand). |
| Date? - Peace City Monument, City Hall, Surigao (Philippines). "A symbol that Surigao is one of the peaceful city and one of the most livable city in the Philippines."
From a letter by PP Geoffrey B.W.Little JP.PHF, RC North Sydney Sunrise D9680, Dean of the Ambassadorial Chair, Rotary District Peace Communities Programme (RDPCP), 19 Sep 2007: "Dear CP Don,
You might be aware there is a wonderful Rotary Peace City Monument in front of City Hall in Surigao, just up the road from you.
They declared along with Butuan a number of years back. Congratulations on your efforts and I hope to come and visit you in my capacity as the Dean of the Ambassadorial Chair of the Rotary Peace City Project aka the Rotary District Peace Communities Programme..."
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