City Celebrates Portsmouth Peace Treaty

As they have for the past five years, city officials and residents gathered in front of the Piscataqua Savings Bank to observe the 107th anniversary of the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese War.

At 3:47 p.m., the exact time when representatives of Russia and Japan signed the accord at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine to end the war in 1905, Mayor Eric Spear, Assistant Portsmouth Superintendent Steve Zadravec and Portsmouth High School Sophomore Myles Onosko rang their bells.

Bells also rang out at the North Church and several other churches across the city to mark the anniversary. Meanwhile, the Shipyard blew its whistle across the Piscataqua River, the Temple Beth Israel on State Street blew its ram horn and a town crier shouted the news at Strawbery Banke Museum.

Onosko, 15, of Portsmouth, held a sign for Portsmouth's sister city, Nichinan, Japan. He said he will host a Japanese exchange student from that city in October.

When asked what the anniversary of the peace treaty means to him, Onosko said, "It's a good connection."

Mayor Eric Spear read a proclamation from Gov. John Lynch who declared Sept. 5 Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day to remind New Hampshire residents about the amazing history that was made in the city in 1905 when citizen diplomacy managed to get Russian and Japanese representatives to come to an agreement, ending what was the worst land and sea war the world had known.

President Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his efforts to facilitate the citizen-led negotiations. The ceremony was also held in front of the Calvin Page memorial plaque that is mounted on the front of the Piscataqua Savings Bank.

Page was the assistant secretary of state of who helped make the Portsmouth Peace Treaty a reality along with then Governor. John McLane.

Charles Doleac, a Portsmouth lawyer who serves as president of the Japan-America Society of New Hampshire and chairman of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum, said, "When the treaty was signed, the bells rang for an hour."

Doleac said the Portsmouth Peace Treaty still stands as a reminder of how citizens diplomacy made the difference. "This is the way the world should work," he said.