"Two nuclear weapons hit our country in 1945. It is not necessary."

"Two nuclear weapons hit our country in 1945. It is not necessary."
This note from Oda Ryohei, Kobe City of Technology, was one of hundreds of
personal messages from college students throughout Japan distributed to
participants in the Peace and Planet rally in New York City, April 26, 2015.

by Joe Scarry

I returned from the Peace and Planet events in New York City with a stack of materials to follow up on.

One piece of paper said it all.

It was a half-sheet printed mainly in Japanese. It was handed to me by Japanese students with a backpack. In the backpack were hundreds of these half-sheets, each one with a handwritten message from someone in Japan. The one they handed me said:

Two nuclear weapons hit our country in 1945. It is not necessary.
Oda Ryohei, Kobe City of Technology

Out of the many experiences I had in New York, all relating to the call for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, the one that remains at the front of my mind is the imbalance between the massive outpouring from people in Japan and the general lack of attention from people here in the US.

It was most evident at the rally on Sunday, April 26. There were at least a thousand people who had flown in especially from Japan to demonstrate strenuously for nuclear disarmament. Union Square was filled with their colorful banners, signs, outfits, and costumes. They came bearing eight million (8,000,000!) signatures on a petition to the assembled NPT RevCon participants to act now for the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

Yes, there were local US people present, too. But I thought to myself, "What must these people who came all the way from Japan be thinking? How do they explain to themselves the huge number of US people who simply can't be bothered to think about the nuclear threat?"

How can people in Chicago work to bring US people of conscience out into the open to work for nuclear disarmament?

Taniguchi Sumiteru, nuclear bomb survivor and activist, speaking to the press.
(Japanese media outlets mobbed his appearances and followed him throughout the weekend;
I saw no sign that U.S. outlets grasped the profound nature of his presence in NYC.)

Buddhist monks participating in the Interfaith Convocation at
Tillman Chapel, across from the United Nations, on April 26.
(The organizers encourage us all to use the materials available,
including the 2010 Interfaith Convocation Program and excerpts
from this year’s liturgy, to raise the call for peace in your 
faith communities.")

I posed with this group who had come from Osaka with their colorful 
NO NUKES! banner and their Godzilla costumes. (They were excited to learn
that Chicago and Osaka are sister cities! Perhaps an opportunity for collaboration?)

Japanese attendees at the Peace and Planet rally carry a banner reading
"No more Hiroshima! Nagasaki!" and bearing the image of the A-Bomb
Dome in the Peace Park in Hiroshima.

Representatives of Zenkyo (All-Japan Federation of Teachers’ and Staff Unions)
and Gensuikyo (Japan Council Against the Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs) with
their banners at the Peace and Planet rally in Union Square on April 26.

THIS is what 8 million petition signatures looks like!

TAKE ACTION

Email jtscarry [at] yahoo.com to

get involved in activities of the

Chicago Nuclear Injury Action Group.
 

Related posts

Hundreds gathered in Chicago on Good Friday 2015 to say to the victims of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, "We can hear you are in pain. We can smell your injuries. We don't have the power to restore your health. But we will NOT forget you."

(See "People Will Find the Way to Eliminate Nuclear Injury")

Sixty-seven years ago tonight, morning in Japan, a single B-29 dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. This incredible blast destroyed most of the city and killed over 60,000 people almost immediately. Another 80,000 more died in subsequent months and years from the deadly radiation.

(See Our Dark Beacon: Prayer Vigil for Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 5, 2012)

I never quite understood how much of a Chicago story the Bomb and opposition to it really is. I can think of at least three reasons why people right here in Chicago -- today -- need to make themselves heard about nuclear disarmament . . .

(See Unfinished Business in Chicago (Nuclear disarmament, that is) on the Scarry Thoughts blog)

Why Does Chicago Need a "Nuclear Injury Action Group"?

Burns on victim of U.S. nuclear bombing
of Japan in August, 1945, show the way
the print on her kimono was seared into
her flesh. (Image: Wikipedia)

Chicago Nuclear Injury Action Group is an organization formed in 2015. We have identified four needs:

* raise to visibility the abundant facts concerning the harms of nuclear use for weapons and energy production

* reverse the de-sensitization of the public to the reality of nuclear violence

* re-direct the discourse from "nuclear protects us" to "nuclear hurts us"

* from the standpoint of "risk psychology," help the public accurately assess, and appropriately
mitigate, the true risk inherent in nuclear weapons and nuclear power

CNIAG seeks to emphasize the power of multiple disciplines and fields to address these needs. The group sees important opportunities for engagement in the months ahead, including:

* Peace and Planet conference in New York City, April 24-26, 2015, in New York City (in conjunction with the every-five-years Review Conference of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) at the UN);

* August commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States;

* a projected spring 2016 symposium on nuclear issues to take place at DePaul University; and

* the possibility that Chicago will be the site of the Nuclear Security Summit slated for 2016.

We welcome participants! Please contact:

Joe Scarry
jtscarry [at] yahoo.com
chicagonuclearinjury.blogspot.com


Related information

I never quite understood how much of a Chicago story the Bomb and opposition to it really is. I can think of at least three reasons why people right here in Chicago -- today -- need to make themselves heard about nuclear disarmament . . .

(See Unfinished Business in Chicago (Nuclear disarmament, that is) on the Scarry Thoughts blog)

The Atomic Age is an ongoing project that aims to cultivate critical and reflective intervention regarding nuclear power and weapons. We provide daily news updates on the issues of nuclear energy and weapons, primarily though not exclusively in English and Japanese.

(See The Atomic Age website)

Nuclear power represents 48% of the electrical power in Illinois . . . . Our state legislators are considering granting Exelon, the parent company of Commonwealth Edison, a subsidy of about $580 million a year to continue to keep their nuclear plants operating well into the future.

(See CAPA’s Toolkit for Reducing Carbon Emissions & Increasing Renewable Energy in Illinois on the Chicago Area Peace Action website)

Good Friday 2015: People Will Find the Way to Eliminate Nuclear Injury

This content has been moved to: "A Ceremony to Commemorate Hiroshima: 'People Will Find the Way to Eliminate Nuclear Injury'" at Scarry Thoughts.