Hiroshima-Nagasaki Week in Massachusetts: August 4-11, Aquinnah to Pittsfield
To Al Johnson
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Hiroshima and Nagasaki Week in Massachusetts
We Stand Firm to Prevent Another Nuclear War
August 4-11, 2019
Dear Al,
74 years have passed since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing at least 225,000 people; 49 years since the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) took effect; and almost two years since the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons opened for signing.
Yet the five original nuclear weapons states, led by the United States, have not taken serious action on their commitments to abolish nuclear weapons.
President Trump has withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal, falsely claiming that Iran was a nuclear threat, and has reimposed draconian sanctions on Iran and threatened it with war.
He has threatened North Korea with war, while engaging in on-again, off-again diplomacy and appointing a cabinet full of uber-hawks, including a Raytheon lobbyist just confirmed as Secretary of Defense.
He has withdrawn the U.S. from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty -- this Friday, August 2 -- and has made no preparations to ensure that the New START Treaty will be renewed in 2021. His administration is building dangerous new categories of nuclear weapons, including the Low Yield nuclear weapons that would make battlefield use of nuclear weapons more likely, and an air-launched cruise missile, and is continuing with the ruinous $1.7 trillion nuclear weapons escalation, which is already leading to a new nuclear arms race among the great powers.
In reality, it is the United States’ 6,800 nuclear warheads, along with those of the other nuclear powers, that pose an imminent threat to humanity. The U.S. President can launch a civilization-destroying nuclear war on his sole authority.
Few presidential candidates are discussing the danger of nuclear war, although Elizabeth Warren did a good job in last night's debate of advocating for No First Use. Without a powerful grassroots movement dedicated to nuclear disarmament, the world's nuclear crisis is rapidly getting worse instead of better. Therefore, Massachusetts Peace Action joins with peace groups, people of faith, youth, community groups, and human rights advocates who have organized events across Massachusetts on August 4-11, 2019, to call attention to the people’s demand for an end to the $1 trillion nuclear weapons escalation and the failure of the United States to support the nuclear ban treaty.
Our lead event is the Boston premiere of a new film, The Beginning of the End of Nuclear Weapons, to be shown Tuesday night in Cambridge, with a discussion. A multi-faceted music and theatrical event will be presented Friday night in Newton, and another film tonight in Cambridge. Candle boats will float in Watertown, Easthampton, and Cambridge; Original Child Bomb will be read in Springfield and Cambridge; and activists will rally and vigil in Aquinnah, Andover, Arlington, Pittsfield, Walpole, and Waltham.
Emily Rubino, Peace Action New York State's Director of Policy and Outreach, has been invited by the Women's Peace Fund and the New Japan Women's Association to participate in the 2019 World Conference against A & H Bombs, to be held in Hiroshima and Nagasaki from August 3rd to August 9th. We'll be sharing her updates throughout that week.
Hiroshima/ Nagasaki Week Calendar
Stop Nuclear War Preparations at Hanscom: Walk for a Nuclear Free Future
Join the monks and nuns of the Grafton Peace Pagoda at Hanscom Air Force Base on July 27, and for the other events on their 8-day walk for nuclear disarmament. Gather at Panera Bread in Lexington Center at 12:30, and begin walking from Lexington Battle Green at 1 pm. We will approach Hanscom Air Force Base from Route 2A onto Hanscom Drive and Old Bedford Rd, at the Vandenberg gate. We expect to arrive at the base…
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“Paper Lanterns”
$5
Please join us as we welcome Peter Grilli (Co-Producer and President Emeritus of the Japan Society of Boston) and Barry Frechette (Director) for a screening of "PAPER LANTERNS". "PAPER LANTERNS" tells the little-known story of the twelve American POWs who were killed by the atomic bomb at Hiroshima in August 1945. It is also the story of Mr. Shigeaki Mori, himself an A-bomb victim (at the age of 8), an extraordinary peace activist who has devoted most…
Find out more »Nuclear Disarmament: Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The August 3 Arlington UJP Vigil will focus on Nuclear Abolition/Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki 11am - 12 noon, Arlington Center, intersection of Mass. Ave. and Medford St. (near Caffe Nero).
Find out more »Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki
7:30 PM – Silent Vigil – Watertown Square 8:00 PM – Music and Testimonials 8:30 PM – Launching of the Candle boats – Watertown Dock NEVER AGAIN – NO MORE HIROSHIMA and NAGASAKI – NO MORE VICTIMS - ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS “Why do we hold signs and float candle boats”? *To remember the more than 210,000 killed, and the many more injured, by the U.S. nuclear attack on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9…
Find out more »Remember Hiroshima Day: Sunrise
Tuesday, August 6, 6:00 am, Aquinnah – Remember Hiroshima Day in word and song, prayer and silence, rededicate to peace and justice. Sunrise at the Gay Head Lighthouse, sponsored by the Martha’s Vineyard Peace Council.
Find out more »Hiroshima/Nagasaki Anniversary Peace Vigil
The first nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The civilian death toll was 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) took effect 48 years ago, yet the five NPT nuclear weapons states have not taken serious action on their treaty commitments to nuclear disarmament. In the meantime, four more states have acquired nuclear weapons and the risks of their use…
Find out more »74 Years Since Hiroshima
Tuesday 6 August 2019 marks 74 years since humans first used nuclear weapons against other humans. There will be a Hiroshima Day Vigil that Saturday from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. on the sidewalk around Park Square in Pittsfield. At 8:15 a.m., the time the A-bomb fissioned above Hiroshima, there will be 5 minutes of silence. That bomb alone killed about 140,000 human beings. This will be the 38th consecutive Hiroshima Day Vigil at Park Square. According to the Plowshares Fund,…
Find out more »Hiroshima Commemoration
The USA and Russia are currently suspending the INF, an important nuclear arms control treaty. The fifty-year-old NPT Treaty (cornerstone of non-proliferation) will be reviewed internationally in 2020. The USA has avoided our obligations under this treaty. Jamestown is idyllic, but Quonset would be targeted and we would suffer along with so many others from nuclear war. Hiroshima-Nagasaki Never Again The UN's Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has been signed by 70 countries, and ratified by 23 (of…
Find out more »74th Remembrance of Hiroshima/Nagasaki Bombing
On Tuesday night, August 6th @ 6pm, Pax Christi, Springfield Campaign Nonviolence, and our JustFaith Community will be sponsoring a remembrance of the dropping of the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 at Hiroshima and Nagasaki with a recitation of the play, "Original Child Bomb," a play by Trappist monk and mystic, Thomas Merton, in our church. Prayers and songs for peace will be part of this remembrance and a dessert reception will be held in the Gold Room immediately…
Find out more »The Beginning of the End of Nuclear Weapons: Film and Responses
Join us for the Boston premiere of the documentary film The Beginning of the End of Nuclear Weapons. Sofia Wolman, who just received her M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School and is ministerial consultant for congregational care at the First Baptist Church of Jamaica Plain, will speak and perhaps also lead a song. She has also participated in commemorative events in Hiroshima/Nagasaki. Jerald Ross, a member of Massachusetts Peace Action's Nuclear Disarmament Working Group who…
Find out more »Community reading of Thomas Merton’s “Original Child Bomb”
On August 6th, the Quakers of Friends Meeting at Cambridge will hold a collective reading of Thomas Merton’s “Original Child Bomb,” followed by a procession to the Charles River to float candles as is done throughout the world in commemoration of the atomic bombings. The reading will begin at 7:00 at Friends Meeting at Cambridge (5 Longfellow Park Cambridge). For more information contact John Bach (johnmbach@yahoo.com or 970 209-8346)
Find out more »Hiroshima/ Nagasaki Vigil
Merrimack Valley People for Peace will have a silent vigil in front of Old Town Hall, 20 Main St., Andover MA.
Find out more »
This year's Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Memorial will be held on Friday, August 9th, 2019. It will be our 3rd year, and will be held at Sacred Heart Parish in Newton Centre, MA. The service starts @ 7:30pm. The program will feature: music, dance, theatre, visual arts, as well as Message of Peace from Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Paper Lantern Ceremony of Peace. This year's theme is "IMAGINE PEACE." Highlights include: the New "Imagine" by Sarah Infini Takagi, world music improv on peace, love and…
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Remember Hiroshima & Nagasaki: Standing Firm to Prevent Another Nuclear War
The Walpole Peace and Justice Group is holding a peace vigil, “Remember Hiroshima & Nagasaki: Standing Firm to Prevent Another Nuclear War,” on Saturday, August 10, 2019 from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM, at the corner of Main and West Streets. Seventy-four years after the United States atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and 49 years after the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the five original nuclear weapons states, led by the United States, have not taken serious action to abolish nuclear weapons. The world’s nuclear crisis is…
Find out more »Visions of Peace: A Hiroshima/ Nagasaki Remembrance Event
Since 1980 we have commemorated the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Western Massachusetts. We will be holding the event again at Nashawannuck Pond (downtown, at the intersection of Lake St. and Williston Ave.). The event will be on Sunday, August 11th from 7pm to 8:30pm. The remembrance event brings people together not just to remember the past, but to reflect on the current existing threat of nuclear weapons that many experts have stated is greater than anytime in the last 60…
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How to Participate
We urge your organization to plan an event in your town, church, or campus. Give a sermon, write a letter to Congress, post a sign or banner in your window. Send information on your events to info@masspeaceaction.org and we will add it to our current calendar so that all people who seek a peaceful world will know that they are not alone! Last year, we listed17 events in Massachusetts and we hope to top that this year! Here are some ideas for actions during Hiroshima/ Nagasaki Week.
We hope you will collaborate with us in this joint effort! Contact 617-354-2169 or info@masspeaceaction.org with questions or to connect and exchange ideas.
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For peace and justice,
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Cole Harrison
Executive Director Massachusetts Peace Action
P.S. Please forward this message on to your friends, family and colleagues!
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Visit our website to learn more about joining the organization or donating to Massachusetts Peace Action!
We thank you for the financial support that makes this work possible.
Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138
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