AK Bissell Park, The Peace Bell

The new Peace Pavilion for the Oak Ridge International Friendship Bell will be dedicated in a ceremony at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, September 20, 2018 at the Bell’s new site in AK Bissell Park.

The Bell, which represents international peace and friendship formed in the wake of a terrible war, will be featured as part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park in Oak Ridge.

Its sound will resonate for the first time from its new location, from a pavilion designed to project harmony, stability, innovation and peace.

Purpose
'It is the expectation and desire of the City Council, on behalf of all the people of Oak Ridge, that the friendship bell, for years to come, will send these messages and serve these two important community purposes: FIRST: To celebrate the past 50 years of growing friendship and peace with Japan... SECOND: To express for the future the profound longing and commitment to work for freedom, well-being, justice and peace for all the peoples of the world. This is a yearning we share not only with the friends of Japan but with many other nations of the world...'-- City Council resolution, February 7, 1996 (drafted by Bill Wilcox and unanimously recommended by the ad hoc Bell Policy Committee).