OMNI: HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI AND NUCLEAR ABOLITION 2020

OMNI

HIROSHIMA NAGASAKI, AUGUST 6 AND 9, 2020

REMEMBRANCE/ABOLITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

http://omnicenter.org/donate/

CONTENTS: HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI and ABOLITION 2020

Webinar Sat. 7-25 on Decision to Drop the Bomb, Carolyn Forché  
      Moderator

ICAN Webinar on the Illegality of the Bomb Today, August 3

New Memoir of Hiroshima Bombing: The Atomic Bomb on My Back,

    Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security

Hiroshima Survivors: Webinars Presented by AR WAND

ICAN: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Remembers Hiroshima and Nagasaki

World Conference 2020  by Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and
    Common Security

Global Zero

Protest at Oak Ridge

TEXTS

TOMORROW JULY 25 WEBINAR.  Former UAF English Professor Carolyn Forché to moderate.    (from Prof. Jeremy Kuzmarov in Tulsa)

Fwd: Invitation to Join Saturday Webinar: What Every Global Citizen Needs to Know About the Decision to A-Bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki From: <pkuznick@aol.com> Date: Thu, Jul 23, 2020 at 1:22 PMSubject: Invitation to Join Saturday Webinar: What Every Global Citizen Needs to Know About the Decision to A-Bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki To: <pkuznick@aol.com> What Every Global Citizen Needs to Know About the Decision to A-Bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki   The debate over the atomic bombings—a controversy that forced the Smithsonian Institution to abandon its Enola Gay exhibit 25 years ago--continues unabated in America today as we approach the 75th anniversary of the incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Four historians-- Gar Alperovitz, Martin Sherwin, Kai Bird, and Peter Kuznick--each of whom has written extensively on the topic, will discuss the documentary evidence and assess the current state of knowledge about the bombings in a webinar open to people from around the world. Internationally acclaimed poet Carolyn Forché will moderate. The webinar will critically explore in depth the “official” explanation that use of the atomic bombs was the only way to force the fanatically resistant Japanese to surrender without an Allied invasion that would have cost hundreds of thousands of U.S. and British and an even greater number of Japanese lives. Attendance is free and open to the general public. A question and answer period will follow the presentations.   Date: July 25, 2020 Time: 12pm CST https://american.zoom.us/j/94643113866?pwd=c2VnWmdUR0NuakRDNXY0QjVVZmtXZz09 For more information, contact Peter Kuznick pkuznick@aol.com or  Glenn Marcus dcguy614@aol.com.  Speakers include: Gar Alperovitz, formerly a Fellow of Kings College Cambridge, the Institute of Politics at Harvard, and Lionel Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland, is the author of Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam and The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb. He is currently a Principal of The Democracy Collaborative, an independent research institution in Washington, D.C. Martin Sherwin, University Professor of History, George Mason University, is author of A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and Its Legacies winner of the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relation’s Bernath Book Prize, co-author with Kai Bird of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for biography, and Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis, forthcoming in September 2020.  Kai Bird, Executive Director, CUNY Graduate Center’s Leon Levy Center for Biography, co-author (with Martin Sherwin) Pulitzer Prize-winning American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, co-editor (with Lawrence Lifschultz) Hiroshima’s Shadow, and author The Chairman: John J. McCloy and the Making of the American Establishment.  Peter Kuznick, Professor of History, Director, Nuclear Studies Institute, American University, co-author (with Akira Kimura), Rethinking the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Japanese and American Perspectives, co-author (with Oliver Stone) of the New York Times best-selling The Untold History of the United States (books and documentary film series), and author “The Decision to Risk the Future: Harry Truman, the Atomic Bomb and the Apocalyptic Narrative.” Carolyn Forché’s first book of poetry, Gathering the Tribes, won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, and was followed by The Country Between Us, The Angel of History, and Blue Hour. In March, 2020, Penguin Press published her fifth collection of poems, In the Lateness of the World. She is also the author of the memoir What You Have Heard Is True (Penguin Press, 2019), a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Juan E. Mendez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America. Her international anthology, Against Forgetting, has been praised by Nelson Mandela as “itself a blow against tyranny, against prejudice, against injustice.” In 1998 in Stockholm, she received the Edita and Ira Morris Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture Award for her human rights advocacy and the preservation of memory and culture. She is one of the first poets to receive the Wyndham Campbell Prize from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, and is a University Professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Webinar sponsors include:  American Friends Service Committee's Peace & Economic Security Program American University Nuclear Studies Institute Article 9 Canada Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security COVID 19 Global Solidarity Coalition Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee of the Greater DC Area Historians for Peace and Democracy International Peace Research Institute Meiji Gakuin University (PRIME) Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice at Georgetown  Los Alamos Study Group Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Peace Action Peace Culture Village  Peace Philosophy Centre (Vancouver, Canada) PEAC Institute  Proposition One Campaign for a Nuclear Free Future United for Peace and Justice Western States Legal Foundation Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) USA World Beyond War Youth Arts New York/Hibakusha Stories

WHAT'S NEW AT THE BULLETIN of the Atomic Scientists (7-23-20)

Bulletin Global Webinar: Why the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima Would Be Illegal Today By Gayle Spinazze, July 20, 2020.

Join a Bulletin Global Webinar featuring Science and Security Board member Scott Sagan and international legal scholar Allen Weiner, who dive into the legal considerations and moral reasoning used in 1945 to justify the attack on Hiroshima. Bulletin columnist Sara Kutchesfahani, director of the N Square DC Hub, will lead the conversation. Read the article by Sagan, Weiner, and co-author Kathrine McKinney. Then register for this free webinar.

Join us on Monday, August 3 for a Bulletin Global Webinar featuring Scott Sagan, Allen Weiner, and Bulletin columnist Sara Kutchesfahani. 

When: Monday, August 3, 2020
            10 am Central 

Where: Zoom Meeting 

Registration: Free. Register here. 

Just days before the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Sagan and Weiner will discuss why the atomic bombing of Hiroshima would be illegal today.  

https://thebulletin.org/2020/07/global-webinar-august-3/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=ThursdayNewsletter07232020&utm_content=NuclearRisk_HiroshimaWebinar_07212020

[Some of the events that follow have happened already but were recorded or filmed.]

A New & Profound Memoir of the Bombing of Nagasaki

(received 7-21-20—D)   Available for a $100 donation to help the Campaign for Peace Disarmament and Common Security carry on the work of this courageous survivor of the Atomic Bombing.

 I was privileged to know, work with, and honor Sumiteru TANIGUCHI, among the most tortured and courageous Nagasaki A-bomb survivors. At age 16, he was a postman in Nagasaki when the A-Bomb exploded over the city. 

A 1946 U.S. Army photo of Taniguchi-san was taken during his years of hospitalization. First published in 1970 and featuring the frightening open wound on his crimson back that seems impossible for anyone to survive, it immediately became an iconic photograph. It became a powerful force seen around the world that silently demands the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Despite wounds that never healed, Taniguchi persevered, helping to build, represent and speak for Hibakusha, the movement of A-bomb survivors. His memoir tells the very personal story of surviving the A-bomb, his fears, his courage to live and to love, and a history of the Japanese nuclear disarmament and Hibakusha struggles for medical care and support.

I had the extraordinary privilege of editing the English translation of Taniguchi-san’s powerful, disturbing and inspiring memoir “The Atomic Bomb on My Back”. CPDCS played the central role in arranging its publication in time for the 75^th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-Bombings.

With a contribution of $100 or more to the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security, you can enrich your life with Taniguchi-san’s memoir, The Atomic Bomb on My Back, and support CPDCS’s work for peace, disarmament, justice and the climate.

On the 75^th anniversary of the A-bombings, give yourself the gift of Taniguchi-san’s life story and make a contribution for peace and a nuclear weapons-free world.

You can make your contribution on line at https://www.cpdcs.org/donate/. You can also send a note and check to CPDCS, 2161 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02140. It is with your support that we keep on keepin’ on.

Thank you for your interest, care and support.

Joseph Gerson 

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. CPDCS serves as a bridge between peace and nuclear disarmament movements in the U.S., Europe and Asia and contributes to intersectional organizing.

LISTEN TO HIROSHIMA SURVIVORS Arkansas WAND via gmail.mcsv.net  7-8-20 Tue, Jul 7, 6:07 PM (17 hours ago) to me LISTEN TO HIROSHIMA SURVIVORS 75 YEARS LATER! Dear Dick, Arkansas WAND, along with ACPJ, Arkansas Peace Week and Pax Christi Little Rock, is planning a special 75th Anniversary Remembrance of the American bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki. Amid world chaos, the August 6th and 9th anniversaries are a reminder of the urgency to rid the world of living under the threat of nuclear annihilation. Thirty-two nations have ratified the U.N/Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty, not including the nine countries that possess them. As soon as 50 nations have signed, the treaty will become International law.  ABOLITION ORGANIZATIONS (many groups are mention in these reports) The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is offering three upcoming webinars featuring Hibakusha (survivors)  describing the horrors following the bombings. Registration instructions are included in the following article from ICAN: The opinions about nuclear weapons that we hear most are those of “policy experts” and government officials, people who have never experienced the realities of nuclear weapons. And unfortunately in many political conversations, the perspective of survivors - the real experts on nuclear weapons - is often ignored. But we are working to change that. Together with our partner organisations, we are so excited to be able to offer three unique online events where you get a chance to talk to and learn from those that know what happens when a nuclear bomb drops on your home. July 7 - Hear the Voices of the Survivors: Ms Setsuko Thurlow. Time: Toronto EDT 10:00 am / PDT 7:00 am / Paris 4:00 pm / Beijing 10:00 pm. Register via Peace Boat  July 15 - Hear the Voices of the Survivors: Mr Yasuaki Yamashita, Nagasaki survivor. Time: Mexico City 10:00 am / Madrid 5:00 pm. Register via Peace Boat July 16th - After Trinity: 75 years of Resistance. Time: Adelaide, Australia 11:30am / Tokyo, Japan, 11am, 16 July / Albuquerque, USA, 8pm, 15 July / New York, USA, 10pm, 15 July Register via ICAN Australia Tomorrow [7-9-20] is the third anniversary of the adoption of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Mark it by signing up to hear from survivors themselves! Sincerely,  Lucero Oyarzun Digital Campaign Coordinator International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) PS- ICAN will celebrate the anniversary of the nuclear ban treaty on our social media accounts tomorrow, so make sure you follow us on Twitter and Instagram — we’ll have an exciting surprise for you there by the end of the day.  PPS- Can't make these dates? Don't worry, we have more inspiring events planned: View all upcoming events  It’s time to end nuclear weapons. Support ICAN’s work MORE ABOLITION ORGANIZATIONS Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki Inbox x Rick Wayman via email.actionnetwork.org  7-23-20 Jul 22, 2020, 3:55 PM (1 day ago) to me  [Wayman is the new coordinator of NAPF.  –D] August 6 and 9 will mark the 75th anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Groups around the world will be marking these important anniversaries with events that you don't want to miss. I'm listing some highlights here, and hope that you will take time to remember our shared past as we work together to achieve a peaceful future. Today: Earlier today, our friends at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and Peace Boat hosted a live tour of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. This tour will be available to watch through the end of the day today. I had the opportunity to visit this museum in 2015, and it was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. I highly recommend that you watch this 28-minute tour today. Tomorrow: At 7:00 pm Eastern / 4:00 Pacific, ICAN and Peace Boat will stream an exclusive tour of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum on ICAN's Instagram page. Again, this is an outstanding opportunity to go behind the scenes without the carbon footprint and the jet lag. Be sure to tune in to ICAN's Instagram page on July 23 at 7:00 pm Eastern! August 5: Our friends at May Peace Prevail on Earth International are hosting an online event "Hiroshima Nagasaki 75" on August 5 from 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm Pacific Time. Speakers will include survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, as well as survivors of the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters. You can tune in live at worldpeace.org. August 6: The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's 26th annual Sadako Peace Day will be streamed online on the NAPF Facebook page at 9:00 pm Eastern / 6:00 pm Pacific. This year's keynote speaker is Toshiharu Kano, who is perhaps the youngest survivor of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The event will include music, poetry, and reflection. Tune in live at 9:00 pm Eastern on the NAPF Facebook page! A recording will also be available to watch at a later time. More information on this year's speakers is here. August 9: We are excited to announce that a new film, "The Vow From Hiroshima," featuring Hiroshima survivor and NAPF Advisory Council member Setsuko Thurlow will be available to stream online for free for 24 hours on August 9th. The exact link for streaming is not yet available, but you can find more information right now on the Facebook Event page. I had the opportunity to preview this film a few weeks ago, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Sincerely, Rick Wayman CEO Nuclear Age Peace Foundation OUR MISSION We educate and train people of all ages and backgrounds to solve the most dangerous technological, social, and psychological issues of our time, and to survive and thrive in the 21st century. Make peace possible, one person at a time. Support Peace Literacy today.

Announcement: April 24-26 World Conference, Rally, March & Petitions Presentations – New York - Eve of NPT Review Conference x Joseph Gerson <cpdcs@mg2.lglcrm.net> 1:07 PM (5 hours ago) to me Announcement: April 24-26 World Conference, Rally, March & Petitions Presentations The Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive, New York City, NY USA Eve of NPT Review Conference Registration at: https://worldconference2020.org/registration/ List of speakers and co-sponsors below. Humanity faces two existential threats: increasing dangers of nuclear war and climate catastrophe. Human beings created these threats, which can only be reversed by mass popular actions. 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- the beginning of the nuclear era which threatens human survival today. It marks the birth of international efforts to abolish nuclear weapons, and the 25th anniversary of the UN Climate Change Conference.  It also marks the 10th Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference to be held at the U.N. in April and May. Our international coalition of disarmament, climate, justice and peace organizations is organizing a World Conference, rally, march and petitions presentations in New York City, April 24-26, the eve of the 2020 NPT Review Conference We are engaging the broadest possible collaborations with nuclear weapons abolition, peace, justice and environmental constituencies as well as with diplomats and politicians from countries which are actively and meaningfully committed to achieving a nuclear weapon-free world, a sustainable environment and social and economic justice. We are committed to preventing nuclear war, prohibiting and eliminating all nuclear weapons, and working in solidarity with the world’s Hibakusha. We are equally committed to stemming and reversing the climate crisis, to social and economic justice, and to building the intersectional movements we need to prevail. Our World Conference and rally provide unique opportunities for the world’s nuclear disarmament, peace, climate and justice movements to press our demands and to develop the alliances and intersectional movements we will need to prevail. Speakers include: Tadatoshi Akiba – (Gensuikin-Japan), Walden Bello – (FGS - Philippines), Oleg Bodrov (CCB -Russia), Sharran Burrow (ITUC – Australia), Jackie Cabasso (WSLF & UFPJ - US), Noam Chomsky (USA), Arielle Denis (IPB – France), Sharon Dolev – (IDM – Israel), Beatrice Finn (ICAN), Sophia (Soda) Garcia – (GBWP - Philippines), Philip Jennings (ITUC/IPB – Britain), Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner (Poet-Marshall Islands),Emad Kiyaei (IGD Group-Iran), Michael Klare (Five College PAWS/The Nation Magazine -USA), Youngdae Ko (SPARK – Korea); Andrew Lichterman (WSLF – US), Leona Morgan (NISG – Navajo/USA). Binalakshmi Nepram – (CAF-India), Setsuko Thurlow (Hiroshima Hibakusha – Canada). For bio information see worldconference2020.org Additional confirmed speakers from Gensuikyo, Korean A-Bomb Survivors Organization, and Nihon Hidankyo, and additional invitations are pending 24 Forums and workshops April 26 Rally from Union Square and march to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, including presentation of 10 million+ nuclear weapons abolition petition signatures being organized. Co-sponsoring organizations include: American Friends Service Committee, Campaign for Peace Disarmament and Common Security, Gensuikin, Gensuikyo, International Peace Bureau, International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War, International Trade Union Confederation, La Mouvement de la Paix,  Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Free Philippines Coalition, Pax Christi, PEAC, Peace Action, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, United Electrical Workers Union, Western States Legal Foundation, Women’s International for Peace & Freedom – U.S. [Other organizations are welcome to sign on!] For more information including conference agenda, see http://worldconference2020.org/

GLOBAL ZERO 12-28-19 Dick, A 10-year plan to remove all nuclear weapons everywhere from military service and send them to the scrap heap? Done. Top military and political leaders on board from around the world and across the political spectrum? Check. Cultural and celebrity voices speaking truth to power, and getting noticed? That, too. Thanks to your unwavering support, what began with a meeting of 100 world leaders in Paris in December 2008 has grown into a global force for a future free from nuclear weapons — one that has real traction with key governments, the public, and the media. We know we can eliminate nuclear weapons in our lifetime and we are committed to seeing this mission through. Thank you for all of your support to help make it happen. Happy holidays, The Global Zero Team

 PROTEST AT OAK RIDGE

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE MAY 22-25, 2020, MARYVILE, TN, MARYVILLE COLLEGE 20 MILES FROM THE Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Complex in Oak Ridge, TN, where US thermonuclear weapons are made, sponsored by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, the Nuclear Resister, and Nukewatch.  2020 marks 75 years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and celebrates 40 years of the Nuclear Resister, Nukewatch, and the Plowshares movement.