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HIROSHIMA NAGASAKI AND THE END OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
The biggest secret about the atomic bomb has been kept for 80 years because no one wants to talk about it. But if we don't want the world to end in a nuclear holocaust, we have to talk about it. Now.
Eighty years after Trinity, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, most people have yet to think about the impact of nuclear weapons on human beings. Politicians talk about policies and use words like deterrence and arms control. What they don't say is that the United States has developed plans for using nuclear weapons than would kill millions of human beings in one afternoon. That same afternoon, millions of people in the US would die from the counterattack.
According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the threat of a nuclear war is greater now than it has been any time since 1945.
This August, the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance will confront the human costs of nuclear weapons with a series of events called BEARING WITNESS: HIROSHIMA, NAGASAKI, AND THE END OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS. The events will challenge us to face the truth of the devastating destruction of the lives of hundreds of thousands of people through the words of witnesses to the bombing of Hiroshima, and they will also point to the path out of the nuclear peril, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
"Remembering and learning from the past is critical," said ----------, "What happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki can happen again, only hundreds of times larger. It's not science fiction, it's stark reality. If we don't want it to happen, if we want our children and grandchildren to be free from this threat, we have to understand the risk and then take action to prevent it."
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
August First -- First Friday at The Birdhouse
Ghosts of the Manhattan Project art exhibit, Yvonne Dalschen, Artist/Photographer
5:30 - 7:30pm, The Birdhouse, 8000 N Fourth Avenue, Knoxville, TN
August 4-9 -- Peace Pilgrimage
Great Smoky Mountains Peace Pagoda to Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Led by the Buddhist monks of Nipponzan Myohoji
www.smokymountainpeacepagoda.org for information
August 6-8 -- 8-80 Personal Fasting
An opportunity to join with others in fasting and reflection on the nuclear crisis and the road to abolition. Participants may fast for an 8 hour period or for the full 80 hours, from 8:15am (the time of the Hiroshima bombing) to 4:15pm (the time of the Nagasaki bombing.)
August 6 -- Names and Remembrance Ceremony
Main Entrance, Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Complex
East Bear Creek Road and Scarboro Road
A solemn ceremony of remembrance, with reading of the names of victims, peace cranes, witness accounts, the 2025 Hiroshima Peace Declaration, and more
6:00 - 9:00 am
August 6 -- Photo Exhibit and arts reception
Addison's bookstore, 126 S Gay Street, Knoxville, TN
6:30 pm
Yvonne Dalschen photography; Black Atticus, spoken word; Holly Andrew, music; Ebus
August 7 -- The Vow from Hiroshima
Central Cinema*, 1205 N Central St, Knoxville TN
6:00pm
Screening of the powerful story of Setsuko Thurlow and Mitchie Takeuchi followed by in-person discussion with co-producer/writer Mitchie Takeuchi.
August 8 -- Bearing Witness to Hiroshima
First Presbyterian Church*, 620 State Street, Knoxville, TN
Hideko Tamura Snider, survivor of the Hiroshima bomb, will join us via zoom from Hiroshima, along with Gyoshu Utsumi, Emily Strasser (author, Secret of a Half-Life), and Rachel Stewart. Each of the panelists will reflect on their experience of Hiroshima.
6:00 - 8:00pm
August 9 -- Peace Rally, March and Action
Alvin K. Bissell Park, Oak Ridge, TN -- Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Complex, Oak Ridge, TN
10:00am, gathering and program at Bissell Park
11:00am, march from Bissell Park to Y-12 main gate (East Bear Creek Road and Scarboro)
12:15pm, action at Y-12
August 9 -- Peace Lantern Ceremony
Sequoyah Hills Park (west end), Knoxville, TN
Traditional Japanese folk dancing, peace lanterns, remembrance of Nagasaki
8:00pm - dusk
August 10 -- Sunday Peace Vigil
Y-12 National Security Complex, Oak Ridge, TN (main entrance)
Reflections on the state of the nuclear threat today and the promise of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
4:00 - 5:00pm
All events are free and open to the public.
*venue has limited space
All OREPA events are nonviolent in tone as well as action.
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