The Santa Cruz Weapons Inspection Team (SCWIT) invites the public to join us in participatory political theater on the Pacific Garden Mall at Cooper St. to mark the 61st anniversary of the U.S. nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.

From the first nuclear bombs that the U.S. dropped on Japan in 1945 to the deadly “depleted” uranium it deployed Lockheed Martin, that operates a 4,400 acre facility at the end of Empire Grade in Santa Cruz. Our Bonny Doon-based Lockheed Martin facility manufactures and tests Contained Detonating Fuses (CDFs) for the deadliest weapon ever made — the Trident II D5 nuclear submarine missile.

Dismantling the Bomb/Constructing Peace expresses sorrow for the full spectrum of victims of the nuclear weapons industry — workers exposed to the hazards of producing weapons, communities that suffer environmental degradation from their production, military personnel who are poisoned by their use, and, of course, the human and other living beings who are targeted by such weapons. On this day we will honor those women, men, and children in Japan whose lives and the lives of successive generations were shattered 61 years ago. This action also collectively imagines and calls for alternatives to the nuclear weapons industry, alternatives that convert the science of nuclear destruction into the science of life-sustaining industries and renewable energy.