Collected here are sensitive poems, filled with hope, because they spring from the heart of a poet who counts hope and faith as intimate friends. (inside jacket cover.).

Sachiko Takata was 14 years-old when an atomic bomb dropped on her hometown of Hiroshima, Japan. In an instant her world was changed. Her mother died shortly after Japan's surrender. The devastation of war and the loss of her mother awakened in Sachiko's heart a deep resolve to devote her life to building a world of peace where the dignity of all human beings is respected and the peril and haunting specter of nuclear war is nonexistent. Given her experience with war, it was ironic that she would marry an American soldier, LeRoy Bailey. It was in the United States that she was introduced to Nichiren Buddhism and credits her practice of Buddhism, as well as her mentor, Daisaku Ikeda, with saving and transforming her life. Through his example, she was able to learn how to tap the innate power of her spirit to weather life's storms; to change poison into medicine; to win over all obstacles, and to turn winter into spring. Because of her growth and understanding of life, Sachiko Takata Bailey now thinks of August 6, 1945, as Victory Day, because the victorious and optimistic person she became emerged from the ashes and ruins of Hiroshima....

Sachiko Takata was 14 years-old when an atomic bomb dropped on her hometown of Hiroshima, Japan. In an instant her world was changed. Her mother died shortly after Japan's surrender. The devastation of war and the loss of her mother awakened in Sachiko's heart a deep resolve to devote her life to building a world of peace where the dignity of all human beings is respected and the peril and haunting specter of nuclear war is nonexistent. Given her experience with war, it was ironic that she would marry an American soldier, LeRoy Bailey. It was in the United States that she was introduced to Nichiren Buddhism and credits her practice of Buddhism, as well as her mentor, Daisaku Ikeda, with saving and transforming her life. Through his example, she was able to learn how to tap the innate power of her spirit to weather life's storms; to change poison into medicine; to win over all obstacles, and to turn winter into spring. Because of her growth and understanding of life, Sachiko Takata Bailey now thinks of August 6, 1945, as Victory Day, because the victorious and optimistic person she became emerged from the ashes and ruins of Hiroshima....

International journal of contemporary visual artists.