HIROSHIMA, Japan — Mayor Rick Blangiardi was named an honorary citizen of the City of Hiroshima during a memorable ceremony at Hiroshima’s city hall on Monday morning, a gesture designed to strengthen ties between Honolulu and Hiroshima, the City and County of Honolulu’s first-ever Sister City.
The ceremony began with welcoming remarks by Mayor Kazumi Matsui of Hiroshima and Norihiko Hachijo, the Chair of the Honolulu City Council, before Mayor Blangiardi was presented an honorary citizenship certificate and medal. During the ceremony, Mayor Blangiardi expressed his gratitude for being welcomed to Hiroshima and shared with Mayor Matsui that the visit to his city was deeply personal.
“I was born in 1946, the year after World War II ended, and while they didn’t often talk about the war, I grew up in a household with my father and uncles, where reminders of World War II were always present,” said Mayor Blangiardi. “To be able to represent the City and County of Honolulu, and the State of Hawaii, here in Hiroshima, and to participate in Wednesday’s Peace Memorial Ceremony, is especially meaningful to me.”
The mayor started the day Monday — his first full day in Hiroshima as part of eight-day trip to Japan — with a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, where the Chair of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, Takehiro Kagawa, gave a guided a tour of the facility. The museum contains hundreds of historic artifacts and photos that tell the horrific story of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and shares with visitors the importance of world peace.
“Visiting the museum today was a very powerful and moving experience for me, on a deeply personal level,” Mayor Blangiardi wrote in the museum’s official guest book at the conclusion of the tour. “I pray the world will never see another devastation like the one victims of Hiroshima suffered. We extend our warmest aloha to all the citizens of Japan — and Hiroshima especially.”
In the afternoon, Mayor Blangiardi visited with global affairs students from Hiroshima Jogakuin High School, a private Christian school for girls that was established in 1886 to provide higher education for women at a time when such opportunities were not readily available. Some of the students who participated in the meeting are scheduled to visit Honolulu in the spring of 2026.
Later, Mayor Blangiardi and the contingent from Honolulu participated in a traditional tea ceremony at the Ueda Tea School, which was founded in the early 17th century by Ueda Sōko, a samurai and tea master who specialized in a style called “buke sadō,” or “samurai tea ceremony.”
Mayor Blangiardi is scheduled to visit Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima Island on Tuesday before attending the Peace Memorial Ceremony on Wednesday.
—PAU—
