WASHINGTON - August 5 -
Sixty years after U.S. atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, Peace Action members will participate in actions at four
U.S. nuclear weapons facilities and organize events nationwide to
observe the anniversary of this tragedy on August 6th and 9th.
Hibakusha—survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—will visit nuclear
weapons research and production sites to deliver their message: “No
More Hiroshimas! No More Nagasakis! Abolish Nuclear Weapons Now!”
Peace Action Maine Executive Director Greg Field and national board
member Mark Harrison are on their way to Japan right now, reaching out
to the people of Japan just as the hibakusha have reached out to us.
Additionally, Peace Action members will attend events in California,
Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York,
Tennessee, Texas, Washington, DC, and Wisconsin to demand a shift in
U.S. nuclear policy and an end to the development of nuclear warheads
like the “bunker buster” or Robust Nuclear Earth Penatrator (RNEP).
Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) introduced a resolution calling for
a comprehensive nuclear disarmament program. “H. Res. 373 calls on
President Bush to ‘step up to the plate' and lead the world by ensuring
America's fulfillment of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and reducing with
the goal of eliminating America's nuclear arsenal,” Woolsey said.
“On this anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan, the U.S.
government should offer an apology to the Japanese people. Instead,
the U.S. wants funding for new ‘earth penetrating’ nuclear bombs,
threatening the annihilation of generations to come. We're calling on
the U.S. Senate to join the House of Representatives to cut funding for
RNEP, a horrific weapon that won’t work,” commented Kevin Martin,
executive director of Peace Action.
On August 6th, demonstrations at the Nevada Test Site, the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory in California, the Los Alamos National
Laboratory in New Mexico, and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak
Ridge, Tennessee, will memorialize the victims of nuclear technology
and weaponry—from American “down-winders” to hibakusha—and call for an
end to nuclear weapons production by the U.S. as a step toward global
abolition.
Calendar of Events
Peace Action is the United States' largest peace and disarmament
organization with over 100,000 members nationwide and nearly 100
chapters in thirty states.
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