110th Anniversary of Portsmouth Peace Treaty

Portsmouth Mayor Bob Lister reads the Governor’s Proclamation of Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day 2015. Attending and participating in bell-ringing:

Kyohei Sakita, Mayor of Nichinan, Japan – Portsmouth’s Sister City and the birthplace of lead Japanese negotiator Baron Jutaro Komurea – members of the Nichinan City Council and a delegation from the Nichinan Gakuen Jr-Sr High School led by school director Masakuni Soeda will attend along with a descendant of Baron Komura, the Japanese Consul General and special guests from Russia.

These organizations and local churches also participate in the bell-ringing at3:47 pm:

• Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, memorial whistle salute at 3:47 pm
• Immaculate Conception Church (2075 Lafayette Rd.)
• First United Methodist Chuch (129 Miller Ave.)
• First Baptist Church, Kittery (636 Haley Rd.)
• Christ Episcopal Church of Portsmouth (1035 Lafayette Rd.)
• Unitarian Universalist Church (South Church, 292 State St.)
• Middle Street Baptist Church, (18 Court St.)
• North Congregational Church (Market Square)
• St. John’s Episcopal Church (101 Chapel St.)
• Portsmouth Public Schools (Supt Zadravec and students attending Strawbery Banke event)
• Temple Israel (292 State St.) – flying a “Shalom” peace flag

Where:
Strawbery Banke Museum, on the terrace adjacent to the Visitors Center, 14 Hancock Street

When:
Starting at 3:30 pm.

Why:
On September 5, 1905 at 3:47 pm, the bells of Portsmouth rang in celebration of the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty. Signaled from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard where the negotiations and the Treaty signing took place, the bells expressed the joy of the local community who had taken personal interest in the world event happening in their hometown, and reverberated around the world as relief that what historians would later call “World War Zero” had ended the bloody conflict between Russia and Japan. President Theodore Roosevelt, who invited the warring nations to the negotiating table and chose Portsmouth, New Hampshire for its secure Shipyard and welcoming citizens as the venue, would win the Nobel Peace Prize for the back-channel diplomacy he had orchestrated from his “summer White House” at Sagamore Hill on Long Island.

That bell-ringing is re-enacted each year for Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day, a statewide observance in celebration of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty anniversary and the role local citizens had in making a difference to the proceedings in 1905.