Hiroshima

Yesterday was the 64th anniversary of the atomic destruction of the city of Nagasaki, Japan. Over the period of less than a week, more than 250,000 Japanese died in 1945 due to the bombing and radiation from those two massive blasts. At the same time that protests were taking place across the United States -- at places like Los Alamos, New Mexico; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Laboratories in California; the Nevada Test Site; and other sources of U.S. nuclear weapons development and testing -- several U.S. peace activist colleagues of the Fellowship of Reconciliation were in Japan during the past few days.

Here's an update from our delegation leader David Hartsough

Father Louie Vitale and I met with a group of Iranian war veterans from the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) and a delegation from Hiroshima, Japan. Some of the vets had lost their legs; many had been attacked by the chemical weapons used by Saddam Hussein against the Iranians and have been suffering the consequences ever since.

There were widows who had lost their husbands, men who could barely see with one eye, people who could not breathe when someone started to smoke, and many from Hiroshima who had lost so many of their relatives and loved ones.

John Richard Hersey, son of China missionaries, was perhaps able to bring a personal history of growing up in Asia to an unimaginable event in terms and tones that are both haunting and yet accessible. His story carries a quiet, deep respect for the Japanese victims, a humanizing story of their lives that brings them immediately and intimately to life. This is part of the power of his telling, which appeared as an article in The New Yorker in 1946. Doctors, secretaries, seamstress, mothers, priests, soldiers, and urban mix of everyday lives carry this cautionary tale.

Tomorrow, August 9th -- on the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki -- the nation's capitol will host an international peace gathering. I learned about this program through FOR member Johnny Sonneborn, a long-time member of our NYC Local Group who chaired that chapter some years ago. Johnny wrote to me:

A Global Peace Festival will occur in Washington, DC., on Saturday, August 9.  1) An interfaith rally with the theme "We are all one family under God" and to embody Dr. King's statement that "We must promote peaceful ends through peaceful means" will be held on the western lawn of the Capitol Building from 2-5 p.m.  2) An expo with some 40 booths of relevant organizations will be in the National Mall area near 3rd Street from 12-2.  All true peace lovers are invited. For more information visit the website or call 888-636-8852.

This week we will once again observe the tragic anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, six decades ago. And while we look back at this historic dates, we must also double our efforts against nuclear weapons and power today. This is why United for Peace and Justice declared August to be Nuclear-Free Future Month.

I visited the website and was interested to learn that this month there will be a National Youth Conference on Nuclear Abolition, creatively titled "Think Outside the Bomb." The conference is being held in Boston from August 14-17, and registration is still open.

During the past few days, two powerful Western presidents – Nicholas Sakorzy of France and George W. Bush here in the U.S. – have made extremely strong and concerning statements about Iran.

Today marks the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and then Nagasaki. In honor of the day, Teacher Ken posted this excerpt of the Quaker Peace Testimony...