New York, NY The New York City War Resisters League (WRL) is sponsoring a Hiroshima/Nagasaki exhibit at Tompkins Square Park on Saturday, August 5, 2006, the sixty-first anniversary of the destruction of these cities by nuclear weapons. The informational exhibit opens at 1 pm and is free and open to the public. The WRL exhibit will close with a solemn procession from Tompkins Square to Christopher Street. Participants in the procession will gather at Tompkins Square Park at 7:00 pm and step off on the unpermitted march at 7:15 pm, following a brief ceremony to mark the actual time the devastation of Hiroshima began. The bomb fell at 8:15 AM on August 6, 1945 Hiroshima time - 7:15 pm on August 5th, New York time.

War Resisters will be on hand at the exhibit to answer questions and give out educational materials. Participants in the nighttime procession are being asked to wear white, the color of mourning in Asian cultures. The WRL will have signs, leaflets and candles available for marchers who may also bring their own materials. The procession will silently wind its way through the Village, bearing its message of peace, until the march culminates in a ceremony on the Hudson River where it meets Christopher Street.

Among the participating organizations are the War Resisters League (WRL), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Catholic Worker and the Kairos Community. Organizations and individuals involved note that this is the third consecutive ceremony occurring during more unnecessary wars.

Thomas Good, a War Resisters League activist and Students for a Democratic Society organizer, argues "The bloodshed in Japan yesterday, and that taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan today, is a terrible tragedy - the result of criminal behavior and depraved indifference on the part of the US government. We are appalled at the recent massacres and other crimes committed in the name of the US. For this reason our demonstration will stretch from New York City to Chicago - and beyond." Good noted that the march will occur during the SDS national convention, being held in Chicago. As the Manhattan Project was based at the University of Chicago - site of the SDS convention - a solemn march will be held there in conjunction with the NYC event. Vigilers will assemble at the Moore Sculpture at 6:00 PM Chicago time.

Frida Berrigan, a longtime member of the War Resisters League noted, "US foreign policy hurts everyone: Hiroshima and Nagasaki prove that if the weapons are produced they will be used. We hope the linking of protests, from New York to Chicago, will inspire others to join hands and hearts in a worldwide effort to stop US foreign policymakers from any further senseless bloodshed."

"Events commemorating Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be held in Japan and around the world during the period August 5th through August 9th - at the same time we are gathering in New York and Chicago," said WRL organizer Ruth Benn. WRL and SDS organizers have expressed a desire to see other US activists join in the call for peace by scheduling events in their cities during this period.

The War Resisters League is an 82-year-old secular pacifist organization, headquartered in New York City, and is affiliated with the War Resisters' International, which is based in London. WRL believes war to be a crime against humanity, and advocates Gandhian nonviolence as the method for creating a democratic society free of war, racism, sexism, and human exploitation.