Hiroshima Nagasaki observances

70 Years of Nuclear Weapons – At What Cost? is the theme of a gathering at Lawrence Livermore Lab in California, while WILPF members lay flowers at a Japanese bell in Des Moines, Iowa, and a Disarm leader speaks in Portland, Oregon.

Carol Urner is a keynote speaker for the Hiroshima memorial in Portland, which WILPF has cosponsored for 50 years after young mothers from Women for Peace initiated the event in 1962. Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility has taken primary responsibility for the past 33 years.

This year’s event, 70 Years After Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Ever-Present Nuclear Threat , also features a speech by atomic bomb survivor Michiko Kornhauser, and performances by Portland Taiko, Tomodachi Chorus, Sahomi Tachibana’s dance group.  Read more about it and download the poster. 

The theme for the August 6 memorial in Des Moines, Iowa, is, Hiroshima/Nagasaki: 70 Years Later: The Fate of the Earth. WILPFers and community members each year bring flowers to the Japanese bell on the state capitol grounds.

WILPF member Jackie Cabasso’s interview on “70 Years Later – Whatever Happened to Nuclear Disarmament?” for the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center August 4 will be viewable online.  The event is cosponsored by Palo Alto WILPF.

Jackie is executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation, which is a cosponsor along with Tri-Valley CAREs and dozens of Bay Area peace and justice groups of the August 6 event at Lawrence Livermore Lab. The theme is 70 Years of Nuclear Weapons – At What Cost? Nonviolent direct action will follow a program featuring Daniel Ellsberg, Country Joe McDonald and Taiko drummers.

PHOTO: Des Moines WILPFer Jan Burns reads the inscription on the Japanese bell at the state capitol grounds. Members bring flowers and ring the bell to close the ceremony.
Photo by Jan Corderman