Nuclear Bombs Used 79 Years Ago

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Peace Memorial Lantern Ceremony, Ottawa 2024 

Held near the Moose sculpture, on the Rideau Canal Western Pathway, street address 334 Queen Elizabeth Parkway, at Third Ave, a few meters north of the new Flora Footbridge that crosses the Rideau Canal. (Google map)

Tōrō nagashi (floating lanterns) honoring the dead,
August 6, 2024, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

On August 6, 2024, about 90 attended this year's annual memorial of the bombing of Japan in 1945, held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. See my 46 photos.

90 attended.

In 1945 the first two A-bombs killed over 200,000 people, and many more remained injured for life. The event left emotional scars on millions of people around the world, including me. That was 79 years ago. I am 92 now, and may have been one of the oldest persons in attendance.

I was 13 in 1945 when the USA bombed Japan. We got news on radio and the daily newspapers. We had just moved to the City of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan from a family farm that had no electricity and no direct telephone contact.

In 1947, two years later, the Cold War with the Soviet Union began. I was 15.

In 1949, the Soviet Union tested a nuclear bomb, and the Nuclear Arms Race began. I was 17.

Beginning in 1954, at age 23, I officially joined the peace movement, writing, editing and publishing dozens of anti-war articles in the first English-language Doukhobor journal — The Inquirer.

For 70 years I never stopped protesting, or supporting like-minded peace makers. It's an extension of my Doukhobor legacy. One-third of my ancestors in Russia burned guns in 1895 in Russia, many were jailed, exiled, and fled to Canada.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Cold Wars appeared to have warmed, temporarily. Now we are in a Second Cold War, at the verge of WWW3, with major wars in Israel-Palestine, and Africa. I think the threat of nuclear war is higher now than before, and public awareness of this danger is lower.

Like many of my readers, I wonder what has happened to our humanity. Why can't we respect others and live in peace? How can we prevent the unthinkable from happening? Who is listening in 2024? The Parliamentarians of the world? The United Nations? How about our military industrial complex? NATO? CIA? Are our children in schools taught not to point a gun at anyone? Is there an appetite for LOVE instead of hate, and a desire to work for a world without wars, for a nonkilling way of life? In brief, how can we prevent a nuclear holocaust?

All speeches at this year's ceremony addressed the urgency of actively turning the Doomsday Clock back from 90 seconds to midnight.

Program

Hiroshima & Nagasaki Peace Memorial Lantern Ceremony, 2024, Ottawa, Canada, by Bill Bhaneja.

Dr. Neve, Kavanagh, and Grisdale

Speakers

Alex Neve, Ph.D. — Senior Fellow Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa, and Chair of the Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention (CNWC) — Dr. Neve urged world leaders to never again allow the mass murder of genocide scale to occur. Nuclear weapons need to be urgently prohibited if we are to survive as a civilization. He paraphrased United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) adopted in 2017, but 69 nations did not vote, including all of the nuclear weapon states and all NATO members except the Netherlands.

Needless to say, we cannot stop there. We must all raise our voices, send emails, arrange meetings with our MPs, and make it clear to our Minister of Foreign Affairs and to our PM, that 79 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki there is only one possible future, and that is a future which prohibits and abolishes nuclear weapons. full stop. That is how we best remember, but more importantly how we best honour the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.'That is how we best lift up our precious, shared humanity.'

Entire text: A World Free of Nuclear Weapons is a Universal Human Right, Alex Neve: Moving Rights Along (blog), August 10, 2024. (3 photos).

Theresa Kavanagh, Ottawa City Councillor, stood proud to see Ottawa as a City of 19 across the country that has pledged its support for the prohibition of nuclear weapons. She emphasized the importance of community urgently acting together to make this happen. (Ban the Bomb Ottawa, 8 June 2022.)

Debbie Grisdale, RN, Physicians for Global Survival, Canadians for a Nuclear Weapons Convention (CNWC), read the City of Hiroshima 2024 Peace Declaration by Matsui, Mayor of Hiroshima (YouTube, 12 min.). The Mayor pointed out that more than 8,400 member cities in 166 countries and regions, 'will actively support community endeavours to raise peace consciousness. He concluded with these profound views:

Today, at this Peace Memorial Ceremony marking 79 years since the bombing, we offer our deepest condolences to the souls of the atomic bomb victims. Together with Nagasaki and like-minded people around the world, remembering once again the hibakusha struggle, we pledge to make every effort to abolish nuclear weapons, light the way toward lasting world peace. Citizens of the world, let us all, with hope in our hearts, walk with Hiroshima toward tomorrow's peace.

Bhaneja and Girard.

Mаster of Ceremonies Bill Bhaneja ended the speech portion of the program, by pointing out that the Canadian Government as a member of NATO, 'does not support the Ban treaty. But 74% of Canadians do, as a Nanos poll shows.' (See: Program)

The lantern ceremony was organized by Mary Girard of the Ottawa Society of Friends followed at the pond near the Ottawa Rideau Canal. (Google map)

Musicians and singers led by Tim Kitz, Chrissy Steinbock and Wychwood and Friends provided lovely music at a beautiful peaceful evening, which Alex Neve called 'lifting up our shared humanity, cherishing our connections and fortifying our solidarity.'

What attendees have posted

• Alex Neve. A World Free of Nuclear Weapons is a Universal Human Right: Remarks for Hiroshima and Nagasaki Peace Memorial Lantern Ceremony, August 6, 2024.
  
  
• Priest Ali Nnaemeka, O.M.I, '90 Seconds to Midnight: A World in Peril and the Unlearned Lessons of Hiroshima', August 9, 2024.
  
  
• Koozma J. Tarasoff, 46 photos, Hiroshima & Nagasaki Peace Memorial Lantern Ceremony, 2024, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
  
  
• Koozma J. Tarasoff, 1945 A-bombing of Japan Memorials — All my reports since 2009: 

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Caution: There is a commercial Water Lantern Festival business held at 12 locations in Canada.

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