Remember the victims of the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the 2011 victims of Fukushima!

Join us for a Memorial Program and Vigil

on the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Quaker Meeting House

931 North 5th Avenue (south of Speedway Blvd.)

6:00 p.m.

Program features Russell Lowes, director for SafeEnergyAnalyst.com and lead author of “Energy Options for the Southwest, Nuclear and Coal Power”, speaking on Nuclear weapons and Nuclear power, Lea Goodwine, speaking of her personal memories of visiting Hiroshima, and music by the Tucson Raging Grannies.

Following the program, attendees are invited to walk to Speedway Boulevard
and 4th Avenue for a short candlelight vigil. Please bring signs, flashlights and candles.

Sponsored by:

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)

Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Pima Friends’ Meeting (Quaker)

Physicians for Social Responsibility

The Arizona Peace Council

Veterans for Peace

Code Pink Women in Black

The Green Party

The Nuclear Resister

For more information contact Margaret Pecoraro, 520-885-3908, margaretspiano@aol.com.

“White Light Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” documentary

Hiroshima after the A-bomb

Monday, March 1, at 7 pm

Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (AME) Auditorium on UA campus, 1130 N. Mountain,
Northeast corner of E. Speedway Blvd. and N. Mountain Ave.

Free, and open to the public
Free, easy parking east of building
sponsored by Voices of Opposition, http://www.voicesofopposition.com/, call 520-622-6419

“With shocking archival footage, stunning photography, and heartrending interviews, this extraordinary documentary gives a deeply moving look at the painful legacy of the first use of nuclear weapons in war. Featuring interviews with fourteen atomic bomb survivors – many who have never spoken publicly before – and four Americans intimately involved in the bombings, this film provides a detailed exploration of the bombings. It is an important documentary for all to see in this nuclear age.” (from email sent from the Tucson branch of WILPF the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom)

Released on August 6, 2007 (on the 62nd anniversary of the bombing on Hiroshima), this HBO documentary is by Japanese American Sansei (3rd generation) filmmaker Steven Okazaki who met with 500 survivors. Read more here.

I wrote about a Hiroshima/Nagasaki Never Again event back in August, 2009 (click here), since my paternal grandfathers left Hiroshima in 1892 for the Kingdom of Hawaii, but we must have had relatives still living there in 1945.

Being as my ancestors came from Hiroshima and we had relatives living there when the A- Bomb dropped, this is my community though I have never lived in Japan. It’s that time again to remember the dropping of the atomic bombs on a civilian human population, and the hope that this never happens again.

Here is a copy of an email alert sent from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF):

Hiroshima-Nagasaki
NEVER AGAIN !

Commemoration and Call to Action
For Nuclear Disarmament and Conversion

Saturday, August 8 at 7 pm (music starts earlier)

At Reid Park’s Cancer Survivors’ Plaza
22nd Street east of Country Club before Randolph

Sponsored by the Tucson Raging Grannies

“The program features Ellen Thomas, Co-chair of WILPF’s National DisArm Committee, and leader of Washington, DC’s Proposition One Campaign, who is touring the U.S. promoting HR 1653 calling for Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion, for U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and for ratification of the UN’s Nonproliferation Treaty. Barbara Warren, Tucson Physicians for Social Responsibility, will also participate. Program will include a description of Hiroshima’s annual huge rally against A & H Bombs by Granny Lea Goodwine who was there recently, and songs by the Tucson Raging Grannies.”

Please join us to mourn victims of all wars, re-dedicate our lives to Peace and convey our sentiments to Congress.

This is a family-friendly event. Parking lot is adjacent. Bring folding chairs or blanket to spread. Some benches available.

For more information, contact Margaret Pecoraro at 885-3908 or margaretspiano@aol.com.

Carolyn’s note:
I confess I have never been to Hiroshima (“The City of Peace and Creativity”) to see where my paternal grandparents came from, but I intend someday to see the peace memorial. Practice nonviolence. Pray for peace.