Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security: Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75th anniversary events
Message from Joseph Gerson, CPDCS:
Friends,
This is the promised follow up with links to Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75th anniversary webinars, events and resources.
Let me begin with two resources that will take you more deeply into the human meetings of the Atomic Bombings than almost anything else.
First is Sumiteru TANIGUCHI’s memoir, The Atomic Bomb on My Back. Translated from the Japanese and edited by yours truly, it provides the painful history of one of the most tortured A-Bomb survivors, his courageous commitment to live a loving and full life, and the story of the creation and activities of the Hibakusha movement for nuclear weapons abolition and to secure government assistance. The book can be pre-ordered online. But you can get two blessings with one payment, by making a $100 contribution to the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security. It will help us to keep on keepin’ on. Donate at https://www.cpdcs.org/donate/
The other is the searing 17-minute Hiroshima Nagasaki 1945 is comprised of film footage taken by Japanese photographers and locked away in a Pentagon vault for 20 years to prevent the Soviet Union from using it for propaganda purposes. It’s upsetting to watch, but like the video of George Floyd’s murder, it documents truths that we must know:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arONMWblvG8&has_verified=1
A fact sheet that you can use for writing letters to the editor and op-eds can be found at https://www.afsc.org/document/remembering-hiroshima-and-nagasaki-fact-sheet
You can sign and circulate the Hibakusha Signature Appeal at: https://www.hiroshimanagasaki75.org/hibakusha-appeal
For those of you in Massachusetts, you can find a listing of local events at:
You can join the 2020 World Conference against A and H Bombs (Online):
August 2, 6 and 9,
all at 10:00 am-12:30 pm (JST)/03:00 am-05:30 am (CET); 09:00 pm-11:30 pm (EDT, previous day)
The 2020 World Conference has moved online with the International Meeting on August 2; Hiroshima Day Rally on August 6; Nagasaki Day Rally on August 9. Please join live with many grass-roots Japanese peace activists and important international speakers, including: Nakamitsu Izumi, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs; Amb. Syed Hasrin Aidid, Permanent Representative of Malaysia to UN; Setsuko Thurlow, Hiroshima Hibakusha; Hiroshima/Nagasaki Mayors; Kate Hudson, CND Secretary General; Philip Jennings, IPB Co-Chair; Beatrice Finh, ICAN Secretary General and many others. English translation is available for registered participants online. For details and registration: http://www.antiatom.org/english/world_conference/
Contact: World Conference Organizing Committee: intl@antiatom.org
Also, on August 6 and 9 you can join Hiroshimanagasaki75.org’s nationwide 8 hour virtual commemorations at https://www.hiroshimanagasaki75.org/events
The recording of our excellent webinar with Sueichi Kido, Secretary General of the Japanese Confederation of A- & H- Bomb Organizations, the historian Gar Alperovitz, and Poor People’s Campaign Co-Chair Rev. Liz Theoharis is at https://youtu.be/uWf--Qkh35Q
A “fabulous” Massachusetts Peace Action (MAPA) webinar, “Fund Health Care Not Nuclear Warfare,” featuring me, Elaine Scarry of Harvard University, Bill Hartung of the Center for International Policy, and Shally Gupta Barnes of the Poor People’s Campaign can be found at: https://youtu.be/5AMW7RSGUPk
Finally, my friend and long-time organizing partner, Rieko Asato of the Japan Council against A- & H- Bombs, who organized the translation of Taniguchi-san’s memoir, and I will be doing a webinar with Greater Manchester (Britain) CND, which will focus on the lives of courageous Hibakusha and the Hiroshima Signature Appeal. The link to the webinar will be posted on the CPDCS Facebook page.
The Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security advocates for peace and disarmament with justice. Our priorities include working for Common Security diplomacy among the great powers, as well as serving as a bridge between peace and nuclear disarmament movements in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and contributing to intersectional organizing.
We depend on your contributions. You can donate at: https://www.cpdcs.org/donate/
August 1, 2020