Hiroshima and Nagasaki remembered

Cynthia Bennekaa placing candles for the candle-floating ceremony during the Greater Phoenix memorial. Credit: Barb and Mike Taft.
 

By Barbara Taft, Greater Phoenix Branch Treasurer; and Robin Lloyd, Burlington VT WILPF

Greater Phoenix WILPF organized a memorial for Hiroshima Day at the home of member Marge Thornton. Her home has a Japanese garden atrium at the entrance, complete with a pond area, where we could set candles afloat after dark. Our program featured a film clip of "I Come and Stand at Every Door" (a song about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by Nazim Hikmet), and excerpts from the documentary, "White Light, Black Rain," plus a slide presentation about Hiroshima, all prepared by Mike Taft, Branch videographer. We also sang folk songs about peace, accompanied by Branch chair, Floris Freshman, and a couple of Raging Grannies songs. And we heard a reading of the words of Nagasaki survivor Toyomi Hashimoto, which were taken from the play, “Most Dangerous Women.”

We also received regrets from several friends who were unable to attend, including Japanese folk singer Ken Koshio, who was in Japan for the Hiroshima commemorations there, and author Susan Southard, an Arizona State University professor who has recently published a book on the hibakusha of Nagasaki. She had been invited to attend a similar memorial in New York City. Attendees included Branch members, a representative of the Phoenix Japanese Garden, and members of other peace and justice organizations. We also enjoyed Japanese crackers and cookies as refreshments, along with a sherbet punch.

Burlington VT WILPF held a Mayors for Peace press conference with the mayor of Burlington, which was attended by some 25 citizens. The high point for the commercial TV station was the act of the mayor of Burlington, Miro Weinberger, and the mayor of Montpelier, John Hollar, signing the Proclamation declaring renewed membership in the Mayors for Peace organization and declaring August Nuclear Awareness month. None of the footage appeared on the evening news, but CCTV, the cable access station, videotaped the event in its entirety. Big news from our perspective was that one more city in Vermont is going to join Mayors for Peace: Winooski! Hurrah, Winooski! The event also gave citizens the opportunity to ask the mayor how he can be for nuclear disarmament and also for stationing the F35 nuclear-capable bomber at our airport, where it may force the relocation of an elementary school due to extreme sound levels. (Bernie Sanders also supports the F35!)

Our tabling went pretty well. We gathered signatures for the 1976 Prop One petition and for the International Mayors for Peace petition. On Saturday, vaudeville thespians performed a skit with us at the Farmers Market, which depicts a doctor trying to calm a citizen suffering from flamboyant “Lack of Arms Control.” View the two-minute video on Youtube. (Judy Yarnall and Robin Lloyd are holding up the backdrop “Never Again!”)

On Hiroshima Day we showed “The Ultimate Wish: Ending the Nuclear Age.” Maggie and Arnie Gundersen moderated the discussion and gave a highly disturbing report on the radioactive situation in Japan. One unforgettable anecdote is that the pro-nuke authorities—the Japanese government and the national energy company—are telling its citizens that the radioactive dirt has been removed and that it is safe to return to Fukushima, whereas the truth is that much of the radioactive dust was carried to the mountains and flows down into town with every rain. The Gundersens are seen as heroes in Japan for telling the truth about the impact of Fukushima. Check out their website Fairewinds: Energy Education.

People were happy to fold peace cranes and willing to sign a petition, but we do not feel that we have raised awareness in any significant way, much less sparked a movement. Willful blindness holds sway on this issue more than any other facing us in the twenty-first century.
 

Above photo: Still from the skit “Dr. Disarmament.” Credit: Greg Guma, Youtube.