75th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombing

Let There Be Peace On Earth

Let Peace Begin With Me

 

“In a world where millions of children and families live in inhumane conditions, the money that is squandered and the fortunes made through the manufacture, upgrading, maintenance and sale of ever more destructive weapons, are an affront crying out to heaven”                                  Pope Francis

 

75th Anniversary of the Bombing

of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

This August marks seventy-five years since the United States conducted nuclear attacks against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, devastating their populations and destroying their infrastructure. Following their use in Japan, the production and testing of nuclear weapons in the United States and internationally continues to harm the health, environment, and cultures of communities around the world.

  

In this time of pandemic, people have come to realize more fully the deep interconnections and mutual dependence of life on Earth. Many are beginning to rethink national security and questions national priorities.  

Today, nine countries still possess nearly 14,000 nuclear weapons, enough to end all life on the planet many times over.  Unlike the coronavirus, maintaining and expanding international nuclear arsenals, and the threats they pose to the world, are a choice nuclear-armed countries make. 

While it is fitting to mourn the lives lost to COVID-19, this anniversary also invites people around the world to stand with the hibakusha, the survivors of the bombings in Japan, and other communities harmed by nuclear weapons.

This 75^th anniversary is an opportunity to come together, to reflect, and to push for a more just world that values peace and the safety of all people.

A Story of Hope and Peace

 

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes is based on the true story of a girl named Sadako Sasaki. It begins nine years after the United States dropped an atom bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan in an attempt to end World War II. When the bomb fell, Sadako was only two years old, and she survived the explosion with seemingly no injuries. However, when Sadako was 11 years old, she discovered that she had leukemia, a form of cancer many people called the 'atom bomb disease'. The leukemia was a result of radiation poisoning from the bomb.

While Sadako was in the hospital, her best friend Chizuko told her that if she folded one thousand paper cranes, the gods would heal her. Sadako continued to grow weaker and sicker, but she never gave up hope. In the book, the young girl only managed to fold 644 of the beautiful paper birds before she took her last breath. After her death, Sadako's classmates folded the rest of the one thousand paper cranes, and they were buried with her.

Sadako's story is one that inspires peace and hope all over the world, and there is a monument in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in memory of Sadako that helps spread her story.

Think about joining #stillhere, a coalition of anti-nuclear organizations who share a common goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons and standing with the hibakusha.

·      Read the coalition’s position statement.

·      Sign and share the hibakusha appeal.

·      Find resources and learn how to get involved HERE.

·      Plan to attend the national virtual event on Thursday, August 6 and Sunday, August 9.

·      Join The Peace Ribbon campaign. It is yet another way to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to raise awareness of the imminent threat of nuclear weapons. Pax Christi USA has taken a lead on this project as its contribution to the ongoing effort begun by Justine Merritt and carried forth by The Ribbon International that seeks to keep Justine's vision of a nuclear free world alive.

·      Make a ribbon panel — either by cloth or on poster board — sewing, painting or drawing to capture “what I cannot bear to think of as lost forever in a nuclear war.”

·      Share this very short video that describes The Real Cost of Nuclear Weapons from Pax Christi International.

 

UP Concert Chorus Dekada Ochenta

‘Let There Be Peace On Earth’

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ITXaL2Sk2A