The voyaging canoe Hokule'a and escort Kama Hele sailed from Hiroshima to Uwajima in the Ehime Prefecture during the weekend, with an overnight stop at Oshima, where students at the maritime college helped scrub the canoe's deck.

The vessels were to stay four to five days at Uwajima before departing Thursday or Friday on the final leg of the Ku Holo Komohana voyage through the islands of Japan.

The last leg will take them to Yokohama. The sail from Uwajima to Yokohama is a little more than 500 miles, and the canoe is scheduling seven to eight days for the trip. The canoe will be shipped back to Hawai'i from Yokohama.

Crew members last week visited the Hiroshima atom bomb memorial, and welcomed at dockside more than 1,000 people, many of whom took tours of the canoe.

"I was deeply affected by the scenes of horror at the atomic bombing museum, and it was hard to keep sight of Hoku's mission of aloha here amid so many terrible reminders of the suffering of war and injustice that we humans continue to wreak on one another," crew member Derek Ferrar said in a statement released by the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

"But seeing so many people being moved just by touching Hoku made me see again that this simple thing is in itself a powerful statement for peace," Ferrar said.

At Uwajima, crew members were to visit the Ehime Maru memorial, which recalls the tragedy in which nine people were killed off O'ahu in 2001 when a U.S. Navy submarine surfaced under their training vessel.

Hokule'a crew members are continuing an extensive educational itinerary, which includes regular satellite telephone calls to schools in Hawai'i. In Uwajima, they were to provide several workshops and talks, and to continue leading tours of the canoe.

One feature will be a talk by Polynesian Voyaging Society president Nainoa Thompson, followed by a concert by 'ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.