In Hiroshima, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba opened the ceremony this August 6, noting: "The world's only A-bombed nation is duty bound to humbly learn the philosophy of the hibakusha [survivors] along with the facts of the atomic
bombing and to spread this knowledge through the world."
Mayor Akiba also spoke of the "obligation to press for nuclear weapons abolition" and of "saying 'No' to obsolete and mistaken U.S. policies."
Here, half a world away, bound by history and moral obligation, we gathered in Livermore. Our town is generally hot in August. This year, however, August 6th dawned like a winter morning, with a chill in the air and the hint of drizzle.
It was 62 years ago, on the morning of August 6, 1945, that the United States dropped the first atomic bomb used in war on the people of Hiroshima, Japan. Today, we find ourselves at Livermore Lab and still in the shadow of the bomb.
More than a 150 people gathered this day at Livermore Lab's West Gate to commemorate the victims and horror of the Hiroshima bomb. Only the tall gate separated us from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which is currently designing the first in a series of new U.S. nuclear weapons.
Our commemoration opened with a poem by a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, Sachiko Kondoh, entitled Nuclear Winter. The haunting power of words honestly written hung in the cold air for the rest of the ceremony, serving as a reminder of the destruction wrought by the bomb.
A call and response reading evoked the history of that day and its aftermath, connecting us, and the nuclear lab by which we stood, to the victims and the horror of Hiroshima.
The music of robert temple seemed to melt the gates and bring everyone together.
Our keynote speaker was Chizu Iiyama, former department chair of early childhood education at Contra Costa College, and co-author of the Teacher's Guide, Making Peace: The Legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She presently serves on the Board of Nikkei Heritage, a publication of the National Japanese American Historical Society.
Standing at the gates of Livermore Lab, telling what happened in Hiroshima, Iiyama presented a powerful challenge to the scientific authority and austerity of the Lab and its continuing development of nuclear weapons. She was followed in the program by the amazing voice and soulful singing of Kaylah Marin.
The bomb was dropped at 8:15 AM.
We marked the moment with the screaming sound of an air raid siren -- followed by a time of silence to honor the memory of the dead and to reflect on the place of nuclear weapons in our present day world.
The microphone was then opened to all who wished to share their thoughts and feelings about Hiroshima and nuclear weapons. Many came up and spoke key truths to power that morning
Daniel Ellsberg, the Defense Dept. planner who released the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War, stepped to the microphone and offered his analysis of nuclear weapons in the United States.
The tapestry woven by the collective voices of all who spoke made it clear that nuclear weapons are neither merely a relic of the past nor an abstract issue to be dealt with far away in Washington by others. Instead, people took responsibility to act for nuclear weapons abolition in their own lives - here and now.
Against the backdrop of voices, many lay down on the asphalt in front of the gate and had their bodies outlined in chalk to symbolize the ashen "shadows" left behind by those incinerated in Hiroshima.
The 4-lane roadway at the Lab's west gate was soon covered with the outlines of scores of dead bodies -- men, women and children.
Thirty participants chose to physically oppose the ongoing design of nuclear weapons at Livermore Lab by stepping beyond the chalk outlines to peaceably block the gate. They were arrested, cited and released.