Anti-Nuclear Renaissance Marks 62nd Anniv. of U.S. Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki

UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE MEDIA ALERTS
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
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For Immediate Release: Wednesday, August 3, 2007
Contact: Leslie Cagan, United for Peace and Justice, New York, NY: (212) 868-5545;
cell (347) 581-1782
Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation, Oakland, CA: (510) 839-5877; cell
(510) 306-0119
David Meieran, Thomas Merton Center, Pittsburgh, PA: (412) 421-7716

Anti-Nuclear Renaissance Marks 62nd Anniversary of
U.S. Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
No Nukes! No Wars! No Profiteers!

New York, NY -- Twenty-five years after a million people gathered in New York City's
Central Park to demand global nuclear disarmament, an anti-nuclear renaissance is
underway. Peace, environmental, faith-based and social justice groups will mark the
August 6th and 9th anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki with more than 80 commemorations, rallies, film screenings, and vigils in
25 states (http://www.august6.org/events), at nuclear weapons facilities and
corporate war profiteers, united under the umbrella, "No Nukes! No Wars! No
Profiteers!"

Throughout August 2007, in commemoration of the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic
bombings of Japan, groups across the country are working to expose the escalating
threat to the world posed by U.S. nuclear hypocrisy, and to confront the
corporations that are perpetuating and profiting from a worldwide nuclear crisis and
the wars in the Middle East. Highlights include the Widening War Tour
(http://www.august6.org/node/233), featuring Hiroshima survivor Yuko Nakamura, which
stops in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, PA (Aug. 6 and 7) and Florence, MA (Aug. 9);
nonviolent direct actions (http://www.august6.org/event) at the national nuclear
weapons laboratories in Los Alamos, NM, and Lawrence Livermore, CA, and at the
Nevada Test Site; and the Think Outside the Bomb youth conference
(http://www.thinkoutsidethebomb.org) in Santa Barbara, CA (Aug. 16-19). For a
detailed listing of events see: http://www.august6.org

According to Hiroshima A-bomb survivor, Yoku Nakamura: "The atomic bomb brought
140,000 deaths in Hiroshima and 70,000 deaths in Nagasaki 62 years ago. People
around the world need to know how a nuclear bomb can brutally destroy a city and
take so many lives away, miserably, in a split second, and also should know that
nuclear bombs today can bring even more horrifying destruction upon us." She
concluded: "It has been more than half a century since the Hibakusha (A-bomb
sufferers) organized themselves and joined forces to call for the abolition of
nuclear weapons so that there would be no more Hiroshimas or Nagasakis. For all the
rest of my life, I sincerely wish, pray and fight for all the people on earth in
this 21st century to be able to live their lives fully with dignity and peace."
http://www.august6.org/nakamura

UFPJ is also promoting house parties and educational events in connection with the
August HBO premiere of Academy Award-winner Steven Okazaki's powerful new film,
White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
(http://www.august6.org/white_light) The critically acclaimed documentary features
14 Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors and is a remarkable document of the only times
nuclear weapons have been used in war. UFPJ has developed a Discussion Guide
(http://www.august6.org/discussion_guide) and Action Tool Kit
(http://www.august6.org/tool_kit) to help focus discussion on the current nuclear
threat and on what people can do. The film will have its television premiere on HBO
on August 6, 2007, at 7:30 pm EDT, with repeat showings throughout the month.

Leslie Cagan, National Coordinator for United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ),
explained: "The march from the UN to Central Park in June 1982 was probably the
largest single protest in U.S. history. New York City was shut down for the day.
Today, 25 years later, the world is no safer, no more free of dangers of a nuclear
catastrophe. The U.S. government's nuclear hypocrisy has not led to peace, but has
fed perpetual conflict. While Washington takes us to war claiming to be searching
for weapons of mass destruction, they are now about to produce a new generation of
nuclear weapons."

The anti-nuclear renaissance is developing in response to increasing nuclear
threats. Jackie Cabasso, executive director of Western States Legal Foundation
(http://www.wslfweb.org) in Oakland, and convener of UFPJ's Nuclear Disarmament
Working Group (http://www.unitedforpeace.org/disarm) explains: "As carried out
against Iraq and threatened against Iran, the specter of nuclear weapons in the
hands of 'rogue' states has become the United States' number-one excuse for waging
war. Yet the threatened first use of nuclear weapons remains the 'cornerstone' of
U.S. national security policy. The U.S. is violating its NPT nuclear disarmament
obligation by retaining some 10,000 nuclear weapons, designing new ones, and pouring
billions of dollars into its nuclear weapons manufacturing complex. Meanwhile,
leading presidential candidates from both parties are warning Iran that 'all options
are on the table.' Who is threatening whom?" Cabasso will be taking part in the "In
the Shadow of the Nuclear Bomb" August 5 action at the Livermore Lab in California.
(http://www.august6.org/node/212)

"As we commemorate the anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki," said David Meieran, of the Thomas Merton Center's Demilitarize Pittsburgh
project (http://www.demilitarizepittsburgh.org), "we need to stand up to the the
corporations who profit from nuclear weapons and who drive us to unnecessary wars."
Meieran is helping to organize Pittsburgh's events, which include a demonstration
with Yoku Nakamura, at a heavily DoD-funded facility at Carnegie Mellon. Meieran
also is helping to launch the national Bite the Bullet: War Profiteering Education
and Action Network (http://www.bitethebullet.us).

According to Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of the Global Network Against Nuclear Power &
Weapons in Space (http://www.space4peace.org): "The Bush administration lectures the
rest of the world about the evils of weapons of mass destruction while at the same
time developing new generations of our own. On top of that the Pentagon is now
moving toward deployment of offensive weapons in space that will only make the world
more unstable. We are the leading arms dealer in the world and its biggest
hypocrite. The time has come to convert the military industrial complex to peaceful
and sustainable production here at home." Gagnon will be a featured speaker at an
August 5th event in New York City.

Other notable speakers at actions around the country include Ann Wright, career
Foreign Service officer and Army Reserves colonel who resigned from the State
Department in protest over the Iraq war, speaking at a Fayetteville, AK, event on
August 5 (http://www.august6.org/node/311), and human rights leader Father Ray
Bourgeois, founder of School of the Americas Watch, who is speaking in Santa Fe, NM,
on August 3 (http://www.august6.org/node/293).

The Hiroshima-Nagasaki events are being coordinated by United for Peace and Justice
(http://www.unitedforpeace.org), which is the largest antiwar coalition in the
country, with more than 1,400 member groups. See http://www.august6.org for a growing list
of actions. These events kick off UFPJ's fall campaign to end the Iraq war that runs
from early August to the end of October.
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3733

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