Peace Coalition to Commemorate Hiroshima/Nagasaki Bombings Tuesday Night in Downtown Princeton

crane1The Coalition for Peace Action will mark the 69th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki tomorrow, Aug. 5, in downtown Princeton. The event will feature music, speeches, paper crane folding, and the lighting of candles.

The event will begin at 6 p.m. with a bring-your-own picnic on Hinds Plaza next to the Princeton Public Library on Witherspoon Street. The program will begin at 7 p.m. If it rains, the event will be held in the library’s community room. The event is free and open to the public.

Zia Mian will be the keynote speaker. Mian is a research physicist in the program on science and global security at Princeton University and is an expert on nuclear weapons in South Asia.

Glenn Swann will play some pieces on the shakuhachi, which is a Japanese flute. Kip Cherry will read some haiku about Hiroshima, and Liz Cohen will lead paper crane folding, a Japanese symbol of peace, for attendees of all ages. The Solidarity Singers of the NJ Industrial Union Council will also present music. The event will end at about 8:30 p.m.  with the lighting candles to remember the 140,000 who died on August 6, 1945.

“The purpose of this commemoration is not to look back with 20/20 hindsight to question whether the atomic bombings in 1945 were justified. What’s done is done,” said the Rev. Bob Moore, the executive director of the coalition. “Rather, our reason for having these commemorations is to remember the absolute horror that nuclear weapons represent, and recommit ourselves to working for the global abolition of nuclear weapons so such total destruction can never again be inflicted on anyone.”