by Barbara Taft
Greater Phoenix WILPF

July 2022

This year, Greater Phoenix WILPF will be back with its annual Hiroshima Day Commemoration event on Saturday, August 6th. This year we are glad to be meeting LIVE and in-person. One of our members, Marjorie Thornton, has invited us to her lovely home, which features an atrium with a traditional Japanese koi pond at its center. We will have Japanese snacks, view a video about the bombings and the hibakusha who survived, sing songs of peace, and hear a reading written by one of the hibakusha. Noting the particular dangers in our world during this time due to the fighting between Russia and Ukraine, we will link current events to the past with a brief talk reminding us of the dangers of nuclear war, and will create and distribute petitions for signature. We will also distribute peace cranes made in Japan and ask participants to deliver them to others, telling the Sadako story. The evening will end with the lighting of candles, which we will set afloat in the koi pond as we pledge to work together for peace.