The International Friendship Bell, an Oak Ridge landmark and key attraction for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, is currently sitting silent on wooden blocks in a city park. But work is underway to raise money to provide the massive bell a new home to ensure its message of friendship and peace rings loud and clear.
One of the co-chairs of the effort to build a new $700,000 "peace plaza" for the Friendship Bell is Pat Postma.
When Postma was a small child, she moved to Oak Ridge with her parents who were relocated to the secret city during the Manhattan Project. The efforts of the top secret community would develop the deadliest weapon ever unleashed in battle and ultimately ended World War 2.
"I’ve been in Oak Ridge since 1943 and the history and experience of being here has just been terrific," said Postma. "That includes the experience with the Friendship Bell."
In the 1990s, the city installed the International Friendship Bell as a gesture of goodwill and healing with a former enemy. The 8,000 pound bronze bell was designed in Oak Ridge and made in Japan in 1993. The bell was dedicated at its current location in 1996, suspended and housed beneath a wooden roof featuring Japanese architecture.
"The Friendship Bell was a 50th anniversary decision of the city and I thought it was a wonderful decision. The thing I love is that it's Japanese and Oak Ridge. On the bell we commemorate the dates of Pearl Harbor, there's Hiroshima, and panels with Tennessee and Japanese motifs. The Tennessee panel has a mocking bird and a dogwood and the Japan panel has a crane and blossoms. An atom symbol and a rainbow are on both. It's talking about the things we have in common," said Postma.
But the bell now sits with only a few wooden blocks between it and the ground. The bell was removed from its housing in 2014 because the original wood in the structure had rotted.
"The first pillars were supposed to be made of white pine, but we learned after it started rotting the wood was actually red pine. The pillars ability to hold 8,000 pound bell was in question and it was dangerous to people. It was truly a shock to everybody that we would have to take down the bell house that was here," said Postma.
The crippling problem has now presented a new opportunity to build an even better home for the bell with better visibility and access for visitors. The timing is especially fortuitous with the creation of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park in November 2015.
“The National Park loves the bell and they want it to play a primary role," said Postma. "We are really lucky to have this opportunity to make something special. We want it to be much more open with gardens and be a real attraction."
The official fundraising campaign will kick off later this year. A website is already online with some information about efforts to restore the bell.
Like the old bell house, the new designs will allow any visitor to ring the bell.
"I think it's really important for people to be able to ring the bell anytime they want. The sound it creates is fantastic and is memorable. It’s going to be a very special place, first of all because of its message of peace. If you come here and ring this bell and hear the sound in this beautiful place, it’s an experience you’ll never forget."
By building the bell a new home, Postma believes the message of peace will resonate along with the city's historic role in World War 2 and the Cold War.
