<<

OMNI

HIROSHIMA NAGASAKI, AUGUST 6 AND 9, 2020, #2 REMEMBRANCE/ABOLITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2020/08/hiroshimanagasaki- remembrance-and.html

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology http://omnicenter.org/donate/

CONTENTS: NAGASAKI, AUGUST 6 AND 9 (1945), 2020, #2

Remember Hiroshima: Thursday August 6, 7pm, Pulaski County

WAND, ACPJ, Pax Christi Watch Online . NATIONAL REMEMBRANCES 2020 FOR ABOLISHING NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Peace Action: Honoring survivors, 75 years later Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Special Coverage of 4 Articles 8-3-20 What Europeans believe about Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and why it matters Memorial Days: the racial underpinnings of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings Create a #stillhere social media frame August 8 Tokyo House Party: Atomic Art MORE July 27, 2020 MORE Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security Resources: TANIGUCHI’s memoir, The Atomic Bomb on My Back, and a film of the bombings. Beyond the Bomb War Resisters League, Ban the Nukes!

Global Zero

3 NEW BOOKS Reviewed by Publishers Weekly The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump by William J. Perry and Tom Z. Collina. BenBella, 2020. (334p).

Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-Up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the

World by Lesley M. M. Blume. Simon & Schuster, 2020,.$27 (288p) .

Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban

Missile Crisis, 1945–1962 by Martin J. Sherwin. Knopf, 2020.

TEXTS Honoring survivors, 75 years later Jon ThFriend, Rainwater, u,As you may know, this year marks an unfortunate anniversary: the 75th year of Peace Julthe nuclear age.

Action 30, 1:1On July 16, 1945, the world was forever changed when the first nuclear bomb was exploded in New Mexico. Three weeks later, on August 6, the 7United States dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima; on August 9, the United PMStates dropped another nuclear bomb on Nagasaki. (4 daySurvivors of those attacks and of the next few decades of testing and nuclear weapons production are still here. But so are the weapons. While this sanniversary is an appropriate time to acknowledge and mourn the loss of life agoour fellow Americans caused on that day, it is also an opportunity to look to the future. ) That’s why Peace Action is proud to join with more than 100 other organizations worldwide to honor the survivors of the world’s most gruesome and deadly attack — and to embrace our role in ensuring these weapons are never used again.

On August 7th, from 6:30 pm - 8 pm ET, along with our New Hampshire affiliate, Peace Action will be hosting an online event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of those tragic bombings, and to honor those who somehow survved through it. Every year, all over the world, people gather to remember the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year will be a little different. On the seventy-fifth anniversary of those bombings, you can gather with American and international peace groups for a live streaming remembrance hosted by our own Kevin Martin, President of Peace Action. The ceremony will be led by Reverend Elizabeth Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and will feature Masako Wada, who was a young girl in Nagasaki and survived the bombing. She is now the Assistant Secretary-General of Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese organization of survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We would love for you to join us! Please RSVP here. In the run-up to this remembrance, please share this online event with your friends, explore this website honoring the Hibakusha (survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), and read the stories of these survivors of the terrible legacy of nuclear weapons. We all have a role to play in raising awareness about this anniversary, and I need your help to make this event as successful as possible. I hope you’ll join us. In Peace and Remembrance, Jon Rainwater Executve Director Peace Action

DONATE Peace Action P.O. Box 8637 Silver Spring, MD 20907

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 8-3- 8:12 AM (2to me 20 Hiroshima & Nagasaki Special Coverage hours ago) What Europeans believe about Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and why it matters Did the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki shorten the war, and were they necessary to force the Japanese surrender? Historians have long challenged this narrative, but a significant number of Europeans still believe it--and that has ramifications for the support of disarmament policies. Read more. NUCLEAR RISK Memorial Days: the racial underpinnings of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings

This past Memorial Day, a Minneapolis police officer knelt on the throat of George Floyd for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Seventy-five years ago, an American pilot dropped an atomic bomb on the civilian population of Hiroshima. Worlds apart in time, space, and scale, the two events share key features. Read more.

Create a #stillhere social media frame

Share a visual remembrance of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with this social media profile frame created by #stillhere, a coalition of organizations putting on national virtual events related to the anniversaries of the Bombings. Create your frame .

HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI August 8 Tokyo House Party: Atomic Art

Bulletin associate editor Matt Field will join a Tokyo House Party to talk "art, activism, and aspiration in our Atomic Age" with Dr. Yuki Miyamoto of DePaul University, whose work centers on nuclear discourse and environmental ethics. Stream the event live on Twitch. Learn more

MORE FROM BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS

NUCLEAR RISK Arms control 2.0? With open source tools, desktop sleuths can go where governments won’t

The potential for monitoring and verification has been transformed by new information technologies. Though the Trump administration has left the Open Skies Treaty, other means may support the transparency and confidence- building functions of verification arrangements. Read more.

WHAT'S NEW AT THE BULLETIN Bulletin Global Webinar: Why the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima Would Be Illegal Today

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.

WHAT'S NEW AT THE BULLETIN The International Symposium for Peace 2020

On July 31, Bulletin president and CEO Rachel Bronson will join a symposium titled “The Road to Nuclear Weapons Abolition: Steps Ahead in Global Danger.” The program is part of the International Symposium for Peace 2020 and hosted by the Nagasaki city government, The Asahi Shimbun, and other organizations. Dr. Bronson's panel discussion with former Secretary of Defense William Perry will be live-streamed free. Learn more.

BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS July 27, 2020

NUCLEAR RISK Arms control 2.0? With open source tools, desktop sleuths can go where governments won’t

The potential for monitoring and verification has been transformed by new information technologies. Though the Trump administration has left the Open Skies Treaty, other means may support the transparency and confidence-building functions of verification arrangements. Read more.

WHAT'S NEW AT THE BULLETIN Bulletin Global Webinar: Why the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima Would Be Illegal Today

Join a Bulletin Global Webinar featuring Science and Security Board member Scott Sagan Hiroshima coverage from Richard Rhodes, Alex Wellerstein, Hidehiko Yuzaki Bulletin of the Atomic 8:04 AM (52 Scientists August 6, 2020 minutes ago)

HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI Counting the dead at Hiroshima and Nagasaki

How many people died in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? It's complicated. Historian Alex Wellerstein examines the conflicting reports, observing that various numbers are deployed primarily as a form of moral calculus. Read more.

HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI A message from Hiroshima on the reality of the atomic bombing

Many A-bomb survivors have long been working as storytellers at the cost of their emotional pain. Why have the urgings of the victims of the atomic bombings and of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the abolition of nuclear weapons been betrayed for so long? Read the message from Hidehiko Yuzaki, governor of Hiroshima Prefecture. Read more.

HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI The atomic bomb and common security

Since the first use of nuclear weapons in war, 75 years ago today, people concerned with the danger of large-scale nuclear war keep rediscovering a powerful tool for its prevention. Richard Rhodes outlines the "only answer to the clear and present danger of nuclear destruction." Read more.

HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI Statement from the Bulletin's Science and Security Board

On the 75th anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Bulletin's Science and Security Board calls on all states to use their scientific and technical prowess to reduce rather than increase nuclear risks and refrain from new nuclear weapon capabilities that fuel nuclear arms races. Read more.

#stillhere: 75 Years of Shared Nuclear Legacy

Take time today, the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, to sign the Hibakusha Appeal for the elimination of nuclear weapons. Then, join national, virtual events commemorating the anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. QUOTE OF THE DAY "Earnestly desiring the elimination of nuclear weapons without delay, we, the Hibakusha, call on all State Governments to conclude a treaty to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons." -- The International Signature Campaign in Support of the Appeal of the Hibakusha for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons

Copyright © 2020 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists All Rights Reserved | Email: [email protected]

Don't miss an email! Please add [email protected] to your address book.

Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security Joseph 8:39 AM (17to me 8-1- Gerson Unsubscribe minutes ago)20

Friends,

This is the promised follow up with links to Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75th anniversary webinars, events and resources. ACTIONS

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: https://masspeaceaction.org/commemorate-the-75th-anniversary-of-hiroshima-and- nagasaki/?emci=0e9112ec-3bcc-ea11-9b05-00155d03bda0&=& You can join the 2020 World Conference against A and H Bombs (Online): August 2, 6 and 9,

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/

Your Monthly Lowdown from Beyond the Bomb: August Edition 2020 The Beyond the Bomb Team via 1:00 PM (5to me hours ago) ActionNetwork.org [email protected] via e mail.actionnetwork.org 8-3-20 Dick,

This week marks an important and somber commemoration: the 75th anniversary of the nuclear attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

75 years ago, the United States devastated the populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of people in an instant, destroying infrastructure, and causing long-term detrimental health effects for millions. 75 years ago, the United States began a war on civilians all over the world by testing these world-ending weapons.

75 years later, we are badly off course in efforts to honor the plea of the Hibakusha, those impacted by the nuclear blasts, and end the nuclear threat. 75 years later, nuclear weapons are still here. Unless we dismantle the system, the chance that these weapons will be used again is high.

Nuclear weapons may still be here, but so are survivors and activists working to eliminate this threat. We hope you will join us in taking action this anniversary to commemorate the bombings and ensure nothing like this ever happens again.

#StillHere: 75 Years of Shared Nuclear Legacy Our coalition of anti-nuclear activists is humbled to host a national virtual event commemorating the 75th anniversaries. Join us on Thursday, August 6 at 11am ET and Sunday, August 9 at 2pm ET for highlights from local events nationwide, stories from survivors, and a look toward the future of a world free from nuclear threats. Watch the livestream here.

And find out more about our coalition to commemorate the anniversaries and how we’re pressing our leaders to take necessary actions to ensure nuclear weapons are never used again.

Talk about the anniversaries on social media We need to get loud this week to call attention to these anniversaries and the way forward. And you can do this using social media, specifically using the hashtags #StillHere, #75YearsOf, and #HiroshimaNagasaki75. Here’s some suggested social media actions:

1. Click to tweet about our national virtual event happening Thursday and Sunday

2. Retweet stories of survivors

3. Follow and engage with us on Instagram Dear friends, August 6th and August 9th this week mark the 75th year since the United States used nuclear weapons on civilians living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombings killed over 200,000 people. To this day, survivors are #stillhere and fighting 4.for the Like abolition and share of nuclear our Facebook weapons. post

As we remember the incredible5. Search violence the of hashtag these days, #StillHere which irreparably on Twitter changed to see other the course tweets of to history, uplift we also look to the future. 75 years later, it is completely unacceptable that nuclear weapons still exist.

It's time to abolish nuclear weapons.

THREE BOOK REVIEWS FROM PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump by William J. Perry and Tom Z. Collina. BenBella, 2020. (334p).

Perry (My Journey at the Nuclear Brink), who served as secretary of defense under Bill Clinton, and global security analyst Collina expose the lack of checks and balances to prevent U.S. presidents from triggering nuclear war in this well-documented call for reform. Cataloguing seven decades of domestic policy developments and international power struggles over nuclear arms, including General MacArthur’s tug-of-war with President Truman over nuclear authorization during the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the 1980s Strategic Defense Initiative (commonly known as Star Wars), Perry and Collina argue that presidential monopoly on “the button” has reached a new level of danger under President Trump, whom they regard as a uniquely unstable leader. Their policy suggestions include an end to sole presidential nuclear authority, a prohibition on the first use of nuclear weapons by the U.S., and sustained diplomatic engagement with Iran and North Korea. Perry’s insider perspective on disarmament negotiations between the U.S. and Russia and the vulnerability of the U.S. arsenal to cyberattacks illuminates, but generalists will find themselves overwhelmed with policy minutiae. Still, this authoritative account reveals the true extent of the nuclear threat. Publisher’s Weekly June 2020.

Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-Up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World by Lesley M. M. Blume. Simon & Schuster, 2020,. $27 (288p) . Journalist Blume (Everybody Behaves Badly) delivers a thrilling behind-the-scenes account of ’s seminal 1946 report on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. In the months after Japan’s surrender, Hersey hatched a plan with New Yorker managing editor William Shawn to go into Hiroshima as a “Trojan horse reporter” and describe the bomb’s impact from the victims’ point of view. Blume balances her narrative between Hersey’s journalistic process and Shawn’s editorial decision-making, which culminated in convincing New Yorker founder to devote the entire Aug. 29, 1946, issue to the story. She also documents the dramatic impact of Hersey’s report, which was eventually published as a book, on the public perception of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, and its continued resonance in the debate over nuclear arms. Hersey, she notes, devoted all the proceeds from the work to the American Red Cross and didn’t return to Japan for 40 years. Blume builds tension by expertly interweaving scenes at offices (where Ross and Shawn kept most staffers in the dark right up until publication), with Hersey’s journey into Japan and his search for survivors, and vividly captures a pre-television era when evidence of the nuclear fallout was suppressed by the U.S. government. This enthralling, fine- grained chronicle reveals what it takes to cut through “dangerously anesthetizing” statistics and speak truth to power. (Aug.) Correction: An earlier version of this review incorrectly referred to William Shawn as . DETAILS

Reviewed on : 06/03/2020 Release date: 08/04/2020 Downloadable Audio - 978-1-7971-0887-2

Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1945–1962. By Martin J. Sherwin. Knopf, 2020. (624p) . Blunders, misunderstandings, and “dumb luck” shape history in this captivating reevaluation of post-WWII nuclear brinksmanship. Examining America’s use of atomic weaponry to contain Soviet expansion in Asia and the Americas, Pulitzer winner Sherwin (coauthor, American Prometheus) relates in nerve-jangling detail how presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy grappled with their Soviet counterparts, Stalin and Khrushchev. According to Sherwin’s portrayal, Truman was “intellectually and emotionally unprepared” to understand the atomic high stakes and often deferred to his hawkish secretary of state, James F. Byrnes. Entangled in an affair with a White House intern, Kennedy wavered during the Cuban Missile Crisis and depended on his brother, Robert, to back-channel with the Soviets to avoid nuclear war. According to Sherwin, military personnel countermanded orders to launch nuclear weapons on multiple occasions during the two-week confrontation. In one instance, a U.S. missile squadron on Okinawa was poised to fire 32 nuclear missiles at targets in China and the Soviet Union before deciding to stand down. Intricately detailed, vividly written, and nearly Tolstoyan in scope, Sherwin’s account reveals just how close the Cold War came to boiling over. History buffs will be enthralled. (Sept.) DETAILS Reviewed on : 06/19/2020 Release date: 09/22/2020

CONTENTS: HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI and NUCLEAR ABOLITION 2020 NEWSLETTER #1 https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2020/07/omni- hiroshimanagasaki-and-nuclear.html 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

END HIROSHIMA NAGASAKI REMEMBRANCE AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS ABOLITION, AUGUST 6 AND 9, 2020, #2

-- OMNI Peace Newsletter | OMNI Facebook | OMNI Website

Dick Bennett (479) 442-4600 2582 Jimmie Ave. Fayetteville, AR 72703