By Donald Gilpin
It was 80 years ago, on August 6 and 9, 1945, that the United States’ atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place, still the only uses of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict. The devastating attacks led to the Japanese surrender and the end of World War II on August 15, just six days after the bombing, but hundreds of thousands of people were killed, the aftereffects were horrific, and debate over the justification for the bombing continues.
“Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” an 80th anniversary observance of the bombings, will be held in the Princeton Public Library (PPL) on Tuesday, August 5 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. with a focus on the relevant lessons to be learned “as countries continue to maintain (and even escalate) large stockpiles of nuclear weapons,” according to a press release from the Coalition for Peace Action, which is sponsoring the event along with the PPL.
Speakers will include Shiho Burke, whose family experienced firsthand the atomic bombing of Hiroshima; Princeton University Astrophysics Professor and former Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Director Robert Goldston; Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center (SECC) Museum Director Larry Eriksen; and SECC Board of Trustees President Masaru Nakawatase.
The observance will be preceded, from 6 to 7 p.m., by the folding of origami cranes, a symbol for hope and healing, and will also include songs of peace performed by the Solidarity Singers, the reading of the poem “Peace for the World: A Poem about Sadako,” and a candle-lighting with concluding musical selections.
Noting that the CFPA has held commemorations of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings every year for more than 40 years, CFPA Executive Director the Rev. Robert Moore pointed out, “The purpose is not to look back with 20-20 hindsight as to whether the bombings were justified. Rather, we gather to remember the horror of nuclear attacks — and to understand that risk remains and worsens to this day as nations around the world continue to hold huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons.”
He continued, “On this 80th anniversary, we re-commit ourselves to working for the global abolition of nuclear weapons so such total destruction can never again be inflicted.”
Moore warned that, after more than 30 years of de-escalation, the world is currently in a dangerous phase of escalating nuclear weapons production, with nine countries currently possessing nuclear weapons and a tenth, Iran, approaching that point.
“The only way we can make the world safer from nuclear weapons is to remind ourselves that they are horribly destructive,” said Moore. “They’re the only weapons that could essentially wipe out all humanity.”
The recent U.S. and Israel attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities set Iran back two years at most, he added. “You can’t bomb your way to peace in the Middle East,” he said. “Bombing does not succeed.”
He went on, “We’re now in a round of nuclear escalation and nuclear expansion, so the world is a much more dangerous place until we can reverse that.”
Moore noted signs of hope in the numbers of individuals speaking up — at rallies organized by CFPA and others over the past few months, and elsewhere, in negotiations going forward between Iran and European countries, and in the fact that international treaties banning chemical and biological weapons have been widely accepted.
“People should understand what the real enemy is,” said Moore. “The enemy is not China or Russia or anybody else in particular. It’s the bomb itself. We as a global community have to say we’re going to vanquish this last remaining enemy that threatens the survival of all humanity.”
Burke, who has been a peace activist for many years and whose mother survived the Hiroshima bombing, lived in Hiroshima until she was 13. “Growing up in Hiroshima amidst my parents’ firsthand experiences of the atomic bombing profoundly influenced my dedication to advocating for world peace,” she stated.
Goldston, “a world class expert on nuclear weapons,” according to Moore, is associated faculty with Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security. He is a longtime U.S. representative on the ITER Science and Technology Advisory Committee and has served on the board of the Council for a Livable World. In 2014 he was named a “leading global thinker” by Foreign Policy magazine.
Ericksen and Nakawatase will both talk about Seabrook Farms, a family-owned agribusiness in Cumberland County that worked with the U.S. government during World War II to recruit interned Japanese-Americans to work in their food processing plants. Close to 3,000 Japanese-Americans relocated from internment camps to Seabrook Farms in the 1940s.
The museum which Ericksen directs has documented the history of Seabrook Farms. He has also worked in international management and corporate planning and has served on boards of historical societies, art museums, and cultural institutions.
Nakawatase, who was born in a Japanese internment camp in Arizona, will recount the experience of his family, which was able to leave the Arizona camp to work at Seabrook. A longtime civil rights activist and staff member at the American Friends Service Committee, Nakawatase currently serves on the boards of the Asian Americans United and the Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School.
Moore emphasized the importance of remembering the 1945 atomic bombings and the horrific potential of nuclear weapons. “The threat is growing again,” he said. “As long as nuclear weapons exist, it will remain.”
The event is free and open to the public. Visit peacecoalition.org for further information.