August 5: Global Online Peace Event via Zoom

Hosted by: Veterans for Peace-Chapter 34 (NYC), Granny Peace Brigade, Hibakusha Stories/Youth Arts New York, NYC Metro Raging Grannies, NYC War Resisters League, Pax Christi Metro New York, Peace Action Fund New York State, The Ribbon International, Green Party of New York County, World Beyond War, NuclearBan.US, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, CodePink New York, The Catholic Worker, and Manhattan Project for a Nuclear-Free World present:

Global Online Peace Gathering to Commemorate 75th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

WHEN: August 5, 2020 at 9:30 AM (Eastern-US and Canada) // 8:30 AM (Central) // 7:30 AM (Mountain) // 6:30 AM (Pacific) // 10:30 PM (Japan).

WHERE: Please register online in advance here.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the online meeting. Contact: Mari Inoue at August5mp@gmail.com 

WHAT: We have been co-organizing a peace gathering in front of the Japanese Consulate in NYC every August since 2015. This year, we will hold an online peace event via Zoom on August 5, 2020 to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We will share a message of peace with audiences from different cities. We will also have songs and music from groups in New York City and Nagasaki. Please join us!

75 years have passed since the US dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is estimated that the bombs killed 210,000 citizens by the end of 1945 and, over the years, have ruined the health of many of the survivors.

The average age of the Hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors, is now over 82 years old, and many of them are still suffering from terrible health issues. To honor the memory of those who were killed by the atomic bombings, a coalition of peace groups and individuals will gather online. 

The coalition supports the commitment of the Japanese people to protect their peace constitution by retaining Article 9*. It encourages them in their continued opposition to Japan’s reliance on the US-Japan military alliance and the US nuclear umbrella.

The coalition’s conviction is that nuclear weapons must never be used again against any nation under any circumstances. The message of peace from Hibakusha to the people of the world is an appeal for all to realize a world free of nuclear weapons.

* Article 9 of Japanese Constitution:
(1) Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.
(2) To accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

After Hiroshima: The Next 75 Years

Daryl G. Kimbal / Inside the Arms Control Association

 “We are badly off course in efforts to honor the plea of the hibakusha — the survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings — and end the nuclear threat.” — Kazumi Matsui, Mayor of Hiroshima

(August 2, 2020) — The US atomic bomb attack on the people of Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, and the second attack on the city of Nagasaki at 11:02 a.m. on August 9 killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting men, women, and children in a horrible blast of fire and radiation, followed by deadly fallout.

The atomic bomb survivors — the hibakusha — have served as the conscience of the global disarmament movement. Their experience has inspired the decades-long struggle to put in place meaningful, verifiable, legally binding restraints on nuclear weapons, to end nuclear testing, and to advance the steps necessary to achieve the peace and security of a world free of nuclear weapons.

Through the decades, persistent citizen pressure and hard-nosed disarmament and nonproliferation diplomacy have produced agreements and treaties that have successfully curbed the spread of nuclear weapons, slowed the arms race, and reduced the danger of nuclear conflict.

Nuclear weapons have not been used in a conflict since 1945, but there is no guarantee we can preserve the record of non-use for another 75 years. Today, a global nuclear arms race is underway and the risk of nuclear war is growing once again. The world’s nine nuclear actors are squandering tens of billions of dollars each year to maintain and upgrade nuclear arsenals. The United States and Russia have discarded or disrespected key agreements that have kept their nuclear competition in check, and other agreements are in jeopardy.

As Mayor Kazumi Matsui of Hiroshima and Mayor Tomihisa Taue of Nagasaki recently warned: “We are badly off course in efforts to honor the plea of the hibakusha — the survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings — and end the nuclear threat.”

It is now up to all of us to get the United States and the world back on track and to shape the next 75 years of nuclear history. It won’t be easy.

Please join us as we rededicate ourselves to the cause by making a donation to the Arms Control Association.

The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Please take a moment to watch and share this short Arms Control Association video essay on the events of July and August 1945 — and beyond, with your friends and colleagues through your social media networks.

Arms Control Today: The Nuclear Age At 75 Years

To mark the solemn 75th anniversary of the beginning of the nuclear age, the July/August 2020 Arms Control Today includes a special collection of feature articles including:

• “Getting Back on Track to Zero Nuclear Weapons” by Carol Giacomo
• Setsuko Thurlow, on her experience in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945
• “Reflections on Injustice Racism and the Bomb” by Vincent Intondi
• an interview with Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and
• “Plan A: How a Nuclear War Could Progress” by the team at the Princeton Program on Science and Global Security

We’re providing free online access to this special issue. To support our independent news reporting and top-notch analysis from leading figures in the field (and access a downloadable PDF version of this issue), become a member or subscriber today.

Progress! Congress Pushes Back on Nuclear Testing

Back in May, we helped blow the whistle on White House discussions about resuming nuclear testing for the first time in 28 years. 

Since then, we’ve led an urgent education and lobbying effort to block any such move. With the help of key leaders in Congress — including Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Sen. Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), and Rep, McAdams (D-Utah) and Titus (D-Nev.) — we’ve made good progress. 

In July, House appropriators took action to prohibit funding for the purpose of a nuclear test. By a vote of 227-179, the House passed a critical amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2021 that would prohibit President Trump from conducting a nuclear test explosion. (Click here to find out how your Representative voted.) 

Arms Control Association members and friends responded to our call to action and contacted over 200 House and Senate offices on the issue. Thank you!

Our advocacy work is not done, as the House and Senate conference committees must reconcile differences. Our team will continue to make the case that Congress must take nuclear testing off the table next year, and in the years ahead through additional legislation and by finally ratifying the CTBT. Stay tuned.

Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.