Help Create Solidarity with Japan WILPF and Atomic Survivors for Hiroshima Day
Published on July, 41 2019
Still from the skit “Dr. Disarmament” performed at the 2018 Burlington, VT, commemoration of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. Credit: Greg Guma, Youtube. Used with permission.
By Robin Lloyd
Co-Chair, Disarm/End Wars Committee
It’s summer; time to get outside, swim, have fun ... and remember the cataclysm caused by the dropping of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. And if you’re a member of a branch of WILPF we hope you will commemorate this event and share it with your sisters here and in Japan.
Next summer is the 75th anniversary of the earthshaking appearance of atomic violence in our lives. Since then, diplomacy and warfare have never been the same. The two major stress points in current international politics, North Korea and Iran, turn on whether they have or do not have nuclear weapons.
This summer, a WILPF Disarm delegation will be travelling to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemorations, and to nuclear-weapons-free Kobe, which refuses to allow any ships into its harbor that have nuclear weapons on board. Nuri Ronaghy and Alan Shorb, who helped to found the Ojai, CA, WILPF branch, and Ellen Thomas, Disarm/End Wars issue committee co-chair, will carry greetings and solidarity statements from WILPF members and branches, and other groups such as World Beyond War and NuclearBan.US .
Ellen, Nuri, and Alan will be touring California from July 13-30, before their trip to Japan. They will be in Sacramento July 13 and 14, speaking and visiting legislators in Palo Alto on July 17, in Fresno July 18 and 19, San Luis Obispo on July 21, Santa Barbara on July 23, and elsewhere in the Los Angeles area (dates/locations to be determined).
Nuri, who was born in Iran, will be talking about what’s happening in Iran and what we can and should be doing about it. Ellen will share information about Eleanor Holmes Norton’s “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act” (HR-2419), which they will ask legislators to sign in meetings WILPF members set up. Let your representative know that you want them to support this bill here.
After they arrive in Hiroshima on August 2, the travelers will meet with representatives of Nihon Hidankyo (the Japan Confederation of A and H Bomb Survivors), which has collected over nine million signatures on their “Hibakusha Appeal.” The WILPF US delegation will present a letter and CD’s with scans of the signed paper petitions that WILPF members have circulated since the ban treaty was adopted on July 7, 2017, and listing the number of those who have signed the online version of the petition. The total so far is over 7,500 signatures.
Thank you, many WILPF members, for your excellent work collecting these signatures! Please keep it up!
You can email scans of signed petitions, and statements of solidarity for the atomic bomb survivors, to Ellen Thomas, any time before August 5th. (Be sure also to mail the signed petitions to the address at the bottom of the petition.)
Before July 31st you can text or call Ellen’s cell phone (202-210-3886) to learn more about the tour or to offer a speaking venue if you’re in California.
All WILPFers: If you are going to have a Hiroshima or Nagasaki commemoration, please post announcements, photos and videos to WILPF SMART on Facebook! This has been set up for all WILPF members to use as a blog if you have become a member of the group.
Burlington, Vermont Commemoration
On Sunday, August 4, Burlington is holding a Hiroshima Protest/fest in front of the Burlington Intl Airport where the F35 nuclear capable jet bombers are supposed to be housed this fall. This date will give us time to send photos and support images to our delegation to share with Japanese WILPF members and the Hibakusha.
Due to time differences, any ceremony on August 6 in the US will not reach Japan in time to be included in the Hiroshima ceremony, although August 6th events could be shared in Nagasaki on August 8 (US time).
