Test: Disarm/End Wars

75th Anniversaries of the United Nations and the Atomic Bomb

Click here to view our interactive timeline, the beginning of which is shown in the image above

Few of us alive remember back 75 years, so it’s valuable, in this unprecedented time, to look back at the year 1945.

It was a year of shifting from the violence that had set men in uniform to kill each other in numbers never before seen to the new and distant violence of nuclear weapons.  It was a year which rearranged power on the planet, and so it was a year that – for a time – allowed the hope to appear, that connections and organizations can be built amongst us so that this will never happen again!

To remind us of the nature and meaning of those momentous events, we offer this Timeline of 1945 – the year of the creation of the UN, and the year the US dropped two atomic bombs on civilians in Japan.  Please read about the developments leading to these two events, and send us your thoughts and reactions. We include additional events and can add more if you find we have neglected something important.  History is alive, if we make it so! 

Through 2020 we take you on a revealing journey:

• What forces were acting behind the formation of the UN?
• Who and what influenced the leaders of the USA to drop the nuclear bombs?
• Why does all this matter and what is WILPF doing about it?  What could WILPF be doing about it?

We arranged for experts on the UN and on the effects of A-bombs to talk with us in our monthly webinar series during 2020.

You can access more information by clicking on the webinar date in the list below.  You can also find the recordings at the WILPF US Disarm Committee’s YouTube Channel.  

• May 17 - Martha Hennessy, a member of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, and three lawyers discuss the use of the "Necessity Defense" in nuclear issue criminal trials. 
• June 28 - Phyllis Bennis of Institute for Policy Studies discusses the founding of the United Nations and the uphill battle to democratize it. She is joined by historian and WILPF member Blanche Wiesen Cook, who reveals the role of Eleanor Roosevelt in the early years of the UN.  Madeleine Rees, Secretary General of WILPF International, also shares her perspectives.
• July 13 - Tina Cordova, a founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, and Joni Arends, Director of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, share their struggles to get compensation and health care for victims of the July 16, 1945, Trinity A-bomb test in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and the radioactive waste disposal problems faced by New Mexicans.
• August 9 - Dr. Hideko Tamura Snider, author of "One Sunny Day" and founder of One Sunny Day Initiatives, speaks of her childhood experience of the Hiroshima bombing and life before and after.  
• September 20 - Alice Slater, on the board of World Beyond War and several nuclear abolition organizations, explores “Obstacles to Nuclear Abolition:  Telling the Truth About the Relationship between the US and Russia.”
• October 22 - Ray Acheson, the Director of Reaching Critical Will, International WILPF’s disarmament program, speaks about WILPF's active role in disarmament efforts before and since October 24, 1945, the date the United Nations was founded.

Resources Specific to the US Nuclear Bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and New Mexico in 1945:

• Resources for commemorations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: video, books, and how to make a paper peace crane.
• Review of the moving book by a survivor of the US bombing of Nagasaki, “The Atomic Bomb on my Back: A Life Story of Survival and Activism.”
  • READINGS, suitable for reading aloud
  • Powerful photos of survivors paired with their personal stories.
  • Quotes About Peace from Nuclear Age Peace Foundation 
  • Original Child Bomb by Thomas Merton, an existential essay that can be read aloud for reflection 

Working for a Nuclear Free Future!

• DISARM/End Wars develops resources and fosters coordinated Branch action each year for Hiroshima-Nagasaki Days during August Nuclear-Free Future Month. It also fosters Branch and member participation in Keep Space for Peace Week (early October) and Tax Day (April).  We research causes of US wars and seek peaceful resolution of current conflicts and prevention of future ones.
• DISARM/End Wars has organized WILPF member participation in gathering signatures on a petition to the Senate, in support of the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.  WILPF is a founding member of Nobel Peace Prize-winning ICAN and supports the legislative work of NuclearBan.US.
• DISARM/End Wars members participate in visits to Congress, the Pentagon, and the Administration in Washington D.C. in cooperation with the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability and their dozens of expert "nuclear watchdogs," who are seeking an end to nuclear power, solutions to safely storing nuclear waste, and abolishing nuclear weapons and power.
• DISARM/End Wars members and WILPF branches are visiting and petitioning their own legislators at home, seeking support of  the "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act" in the House of Representatives.
• DISARM/End Wars supports members and branches in their own projects. Some have exposed local corporate and university war profiteering. Others launch projects on depleted uranium; opposition to the siting of F-35 jet bombers in communities such as Tucson AZ, Madison WI, and Burlington VT weaponized drones and targeting local nuclear research and industry.  Branches organize peace vigils, peace camps, study groups, and children’s peace education. They visit Congress members and speak truth to power. 
• DISARM/End Wars works to raise consciousness about the environmental and economic effects of militarism, working with Raging Grannies, Mayors for Peace, World Beyond War, Black Alliance for Peace, Extinction Rebellion, Poor People's Campaign, Veterans for Peace, Physicians for Social Responsibility,  Code Pink, Peace Action, Abolition 2000, and Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.
• DISARM/End Wars develops resources and works to educate the public about the importance of cutting US military expenditures, and demilitarize the police, in order to shift resources to crucial societal needs. 

Resources

On Facebook:  

• WILPF US (Read about Disarm/End Wars issues and events. Posts by administrators only.)
• WILPF SMART!  (All WILPF members can join this group to post events and news to the "Social Media Action Response Team" blog.)
• NucNews (Follow this page for news from around the world about everything nuclear.)
• Eye On Congress (Stay informed on news about federal and state legislation.  Share info via comments on posts or messages.)

Other Resources:

• Online and Paper petitions to Representatives for the "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act"
• Online and paper petitions to Senators for UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
• Questions for Candidates during elections
• "How to fund the Green New Deal and get rid of nukes too!" op-ed
• “Warheads to Windmills: How to Pay for a Green New Deal” report by NuclearBan.US
• "Good People Doing Great Things", a 4-page analysis of antinuclear efforts by legislators
• "Let's End the Whole Nuclear Era!", a WILPF-US fold-over flyer
• Climate, Justice, and Peace, PDF of our infographic card.  Order cards here.
• Reports on WILPF US Nuclear-Free-Future tours in 2016, in 2017, and in 2019
• Videos about topics related to WILPF, by Robin Lloyd and Ellen Thomas, and on the WILPF US Disarm Committee’s YouTube Channel

Meetings of the Disarm/End Wars Committee are usually on the second and last Sunday of every month at 4:30 pm PT, 5:30 pm MT, 6:30 pm CT, 7:30 pm Eastern time.  You can register for the calls via Maestro.  Be sure also to notify the Co-Chairs of Disarm/End Wars Committee - Robin Lloyd, Cherrill Spencer and Ellen Thomas – at disarmchair(at)wilpfus.org