For August, 2025, the calendar features the International Friendship Bell located at AK Bissell Park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The bell was cast in Kyoto, Japan in 1993, and is a symbol of peace and unity between the United States and Japan.
Shigeko Uppuluri, an Oak Ridge resident born in Japan, and her husband, Dr. Ram Uppuluri, an employee of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, had the proposal to create the bell after visiting a Buddhist temple in Japan. Oak Ridge artist Suzanna Harris designed two of the outer bell panels – one of Tennessee symbols and the other of Japanese symbols.
The other two panels commemorate the dates of Pearl Harbor, V-J Day, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The pavilion that houses the bell was designed by Jon Coddington, combining elements of Asian and Western architecture reflecting East Tennessee’s cantilevered barns.
The bell is rung commemoratively on August 6, for each year since the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. This year will mark the 80th anniversary of “Little Boy” being dropped on Hiroshima, and the National Park Serivce will ring the bell 80 times at dawn (6:47 AM EDT) on Wednesday, August 6, 2025.
You can download this month’s calendar that includes significant atomic events that occured in August over the years as well as a listing of all the atomic shots conducted.
