The Portsmouth Peace Treaty Centennial Celebration

All eyes were on Portsmouth during the summer of 1905, as Japanese and Russian envoys met to end the bloody Russo-Japanese War. For thirty days, Russian plenipotentiary Sergei Witte and his Japanese counterpart, Jutaro Komura the plenipotentiaries representing Tsar and Emperor gathered every available resource including the social graces found in a Seacoast summer to draft the Treaty of Portsmouth that ended the fighting on September 5th. President Theodore Roosevelt won the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for bringing the countries together and for the back-channel diplomacy that aided the face-to-face negotiations of the extraordinary Russian and Japanese diplomats.

But Portsmouth helped achieve the Peace, thanks to the the US Navy's peace process and the hospitality of the citizens of New Hampshire. Today it's called multi-track diplomacy.           

A committee of Portsmouth citizens representing businesses, cultural groups and a diverse host of community organizations have put together a calendar of events that lets visitors in the summer of 2005 see how it all happened a hundred years ago. They have also created a lasting legacy of new research featured

·             on a website recognized by the Library of Congress,

·             in an extensive and traveling exhibit of documents and artifacts,

·             in a school Curriculum and

·             on the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Trail that visitors can explore for years to come.

Centennial events include re-enactments, parades, performances, exhibits -- right up to and including the 100th anniversary of the moment the Treaty was signed: 3:47 pm EDT on September 5th. For more details and continuous updates, visit www.PortsmouthPeaceTreaty.com