WILPFers will never forget the dreadful bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki

By Cherrill Spencer
Co-chair of DISARM/End Wars Committee  

September 2021

The Corvallis, Oregon WILPF branch paired up with Veterans For Peace, Chapter 132, Linus Pauling chapter to hold our annual commemoration which featured live traditional Japanese koto music, the reading of a letter written by June Ikako Terasaka Moore, a 93-yo Hibakusha woman who lives in Corvallis, and a group recitation of a community affirmation denouncing war and nuclear weapons. Following the program, participants had a candlelight procession to a bridge from which we watched a lantern-lit flotilla of kayaks and canoes come up the Willamette River and pass under us.  

As a total surprise, and dumb luck, two young men, David Hedberg and James Krzmarzick and Outdoor History Productions, who are working on a documentary, filmed the entire ceremony and created this video of this entire event.  https://vimeo.com/585655066/9bdfaa8aaf 

Photo (above): Canoes with lanterns paddle along the Willamette River in Corvallis, Oregon in a Hiroshima event co-organized by the Corvallis WILPF branch. Photo by Bart Bolger, used with his permission.

WILPF East Bay (California) co-sponsored a gathering outside the main gate of Lawrence Livermore National Lab, in Livermore CA on both 6th & 9th August, the associated photo shows one of the hibakusha, Nagasaki A-bomb survivor Nobu Hanaoka who spoke. Marylia Kelley of TriValley Cares reported: “Among other things, the Lab tried to drown out our opening with a lawnmower! But we brought truth and light and would not be “turned around” by garden equipment. “ The in-person demo was followed by a virtual, streamed on the web, event featuring nuclear analyst and whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, Nell Myhand, Tsukuru Fors, John Burroughs, Marylia Kelley, and Marshallese climate activists, all dedicated to the abolition of nuclear weapons. Musicians Betsy Rose, Benjamin Mertz, and Francis Wong provided the music.

Photo (above): Nagasaki A-bomb survivor Nobu Hanaoka speaks at the opening of the demo outside Lawrence Livermore National Lab on 6th August. Photo credit: Jackie Cabasso, used with her permission.
 
The Peninsula/Palo Alto, CA WILPF members, joined by some community peace activists, stood in vigil commemorating the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings, at the busy intersection of El Camino and Embarcadero in Palo Alto from noon to 2 pm on Friday August 6. Our signs and banners urged the U.S. and other nuclear powers to sign the TPNW and transfer funds from the military to human needs. We displayed some of the 1000 remaining paper cranes from our July/August 2020 installation of 2080 paper peace cranes outside a local art gallery. We put garlands of peace cranes on light poles  and handed others out to pedestrians with a flyer about WILPF. WE had passers-by sign a petition to the US Senate about the TPNW. Watch this video to learn how 2080 cranes were made and displayed by local residents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkWL_AnePpQ

Photo (above): Garlands of peace cranes adorn a light pole at Peninsula/Palo Alto vigil on 6 August. Photo by Cherrill Spencer, used with her permission.

Photo (left): Some of the Palo Alto/Peninsula WILPF branch members who stood in vigil on 6 August.  Photo by Cherrill Spencer, used with her permission.

A member of the WILPF San Francisco branch currently living in Albuquerque, NM, Arla Ertz, demonstrated there on 6th August with Veterans for Peace members. 

Photo (left): Arla Ertz (on left in white pants) demonstrates with Vets for Peace in Albuquerque, NM. Photo by Arla Ertz, used with her permission.

Three other members from WILPF  San Francisco Branch went to Japan Town in S.F. on Friday, August 6 to put up signs (see in background of photo), plus give out leaflets at stores, basically saying "No More Hiroshimas, No More Nagasakis" and call President  Biden and say so, also included TPNW.  Three were: Deetje Boler, Anne Politeo and Betty Traynor (taking photo).

Photo (left): Deetje Boler and Anne Politeo leafleting in San Francisco’s Japan Town on 6 August. Photo by Betty Traynor, used with her permission.

Ann Arbor branch member, Odile Hugonot Haber was visiting Dijon, France in August and she joined a fast for nuclear disarmament from 6th to 9th August.

Photo (left): Ann Arbor branch member, Odile Hugonot Haber (on the left) stands in front of a banner in Dijon, France that says: In France and the world we fast from 6th to 9th August for total nuclear disarmament. Photo by Alan Haber and used with his permission.

The WILPF Burlington Branch, Vermont International Film Festival, and Burlington City Arts sponsored a Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemorative event on Thursday, August 5th at the City Hall Park between College St. and Main St. in Burlington, VT. The event had activities for both youth and adults, including painting for peace, origami crane folding, sidewalk chalk drawing, a penny spending survey, the telling of the Sadako story, and information & resources table. That evening Dr. John Reuwer led a discussion on the risks of nuclear weapons and the possibilities for eliminating them. Then they showed the classic film, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Photo (above): DISARM Co-chair Robin Lloyd, decorated the side of her house in Burlington, VT, with banners and paintings by local school children 

#PeaceWave_2021_Maine was held on Friday Aug 6 on the Brunswick Green in Maine to Commemorate H&N, to collect signatures for the petition calling on President/Senate to sign & Ratify the TPNW, to collect words & stories from those persons present, and to educate ourselves about the #TreatyBan TPNW, and to read excerpts from the Ban Treaty text. There is an 8 minute video of the Maine branch event on You Tube, watch here: https://youtu.be/pJCyjGRSzRI

Photo (above): Maine WILPFer Barbara West (on right) takes part in the international Peace Wave on 6th August. Photo taken by Martha Spiess and used with her permission.

OTHER Branch Actions

These branches were planning activities to commemorate the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. There were no event reports or photos received for: WILPF Monterey County (CA), WILPF Fresno (CA), WILPF Des Moines (IA), and WILPF members in Asheville, North Carolina.