75th Commemorative Remembrance of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Organized by
San Francisco, July 15, 2020
The 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be commemorated on August 6, and 9, 2020 by four of the world’s leading interfaith/intercultural organizations with a call for the abolition of all nuclear weapons.
The appeal will be part of an hour-long online video presentation with supporting statements from former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev, former US Secretary of State George Shultz, and other prominent voices. It will be held on August 6 and 9.
“On August 5, 1945 – the day before the atomic bombing – the people of Hiroshima had no idea of the cataclysmic disaster that awaited them. On August 6, 2020, the people of the world have little idea of the thermonuclear disaster that is aimed at them,” said Bishop William Swing, retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California.
Swing, founder of United Religions Initiative (URI), with Victor Kazanjian its executive director, have joined the leaders of the Charter of Compassion, Marilyn Turkovich, executive director; the, Parliament of the World’s Religions, Audrey Kitagawa, chair; and, Religions for Peace, Azza Karam, executive director, in jointly issuing the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Accord statement.
“It is a measure of the urgency we all feel that this is the first time the organizations have joined together to make a common statement,” Swing said. “Our hope is that this statement will help to awaken the world to the trigger-ready threats posed by these weapons and to spur a global movement for a nuclear-free world.”
“At a time when peoples’ health should be first and foremost, billions of dollars are being invested in modernizing nuclear weapons and digitalizing the battlefield with unknown consequences, while agreements that stabilized nuclear dangers are being torn up,” Swing said.
“The world is at a quiet, ultimately consequential, crossroads concerning nuclear weapons. More hands are poised over nuclear ’buttons,’ and the nuclear armed counties have decided to move rapidly in the direction of raising, rather than lowering, the nuclear threat to the world.
“Not one nuclear weapons country has leadership calling for a change in direction. Therefore, for the sake of security of the world community, citizens have to stand up. That is why we have organized this initiative,” said Swing.
Other speakers commemorating the August 6 and August 9 atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki include Kazumi Matsui, Mayor of Hiroshima, Tomihisa Taue, Mayor of Nagasaki, former US Senator Sam Nunn, Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Nobel Laureate, Lassina Zerbo, head of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Leona Morgan, Coordinator with the Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium mining, and Kehkashan Basu, founder and president of Green Hope Foundation.
Both former President Gorbachev and Secretary Shultz will be honored for their efforts that brought the world tantalizingly close to the total elimination of nuclear weapons at the 1986 Summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. An award to young people pursuing nuclear disarmament is being established in perpetuity in their names.
The Hiroshima/Nagasaki commemoration will be streamed online globally, across various time zones on Facebook, YouTube and other platforms. Visit Voices-URI.
For more information contact:
Julie Schelling
Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons
Email: contact@voices-uri.org
Phone: 1+347.719.1518
Credit: gettyimages.
Credit: gettyimages.com/RonaldReaganLibrary/Stringer (Reykjavik Summit, October 1986)
Credit: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library / George P Shultz Collections, Hoover Archives (Shultz – Gorbachev – Moscow – October 23, 1987)
Endorsers of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Accord include:
Council for a Livable World; Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation – John Tierney, Executive Director
Global Security Institute – Jonathan Granoff, President
Lightbridge Corporation – Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr., Chairman
Mayors for Peace
Disarmament and Security Centre – New Zealand – Dr. Kate Dewes ONZM
International Peace Bureau – Lisa Clark, Co-President
Ploughshares Fund - Joe Cirincione, President
Nuclear Watch New Mexico – Jay Coghlan, Executive Director Peace Action – Paul Kawika Martin, Senior Director, Policy and Political Affairs
Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary – Karenna Gore Founder and Director
American Renewable Energy Institute – Chip Comins Chairman and CEO
Atomic Reporters – Peter Rickwood Founder
Earth Day Network Mexico – Tiahoga Ruge. Regional Director
World Beyond War – David Swanson Journalist and Antiwar Activist
NSquare – Erika Gregory, Managing Director
Interfaith Power and Light – Rev. Susan Hendershot President
Union for Reform Judaism
Chishty Foundation – Haji Syed Salman Chishty, Chairman
Sufi Ruhaniat International – Pir Shabda Kahn
Tri-Faith Initiative – Wendy Goldberg, Executive Director
International Youth Alliance for Peace – Thirukumar Premakumar, Founder and President, Sri Lanka
Veterans for Peace Golden Rule Project – Helen Jaccard, Executive Director
May Peace Prevail on Earth International – Fumi Johns Stewart, Executive Director
The Shift Network – Philip M. Hellmich, Global Peace Ambassador
Goi Peace Foundation – Hiroo Saionji, President, Masami Miyazaki, Executive Director
Project Ploughshares – Cesar Jaramillo, Executive Director
Heiwa Peace and Reconciliation Foundation of New York – Rev. Dr. TK Nakagaki, President and Founder, Hiroshima Peace Ambassador, Nagasaki Peace Correspondent
Church Council of Greater Seattle – John Ramos, Executive Director
Global Consciousness Project – Dr. Roger Nelson, Director
Tanenbaum – Rev. Mark E. Fowler, CEO
Middle Powers Initiative – Tarja Cronberg, Chair
Friends Committee on National Legislation – Diane Randall, General Secretary
One Billion Youth for Peace – Abraham Karickam, Founder
Green Hope Foundation – Kehkashan Basu Founder, and President
Unity Earth – Ben Bowler, Executive Director
Living Peace Projects – Brigitte van Baren Chair, Co-Founder
The Global Sunrise Project – Kasha and Marla Slavner
One Life Alliance – Kia Scherr, President
MasterPeace – Aart Bos, CEO
A Common Word Among the Youth (ACWAY) – Rawaad Mahyub, Executive Director
Sérgio Duarte – Ambassador, President of Pugwash
Bruce Knotts – President and CEO: NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security; and Director of the Unitarian Universalist Office at the United Nations
Daryl G. Kimball – Executive Director, Arms Control Association
Bruce Blair – Co- founder, Global Zero
Ken Kimmell – President, Union of Concerned Scientists Lieutenant-General (ret) the Honourable Roméo Dallaire
Dr. Mary-Wynne Ashford – International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Winner 1985 Noble Peace Prize
Dr. Hans Blix – former Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Michael Krepon – Co-Founder and Distinguished Fellow The Stimson Center
Richard Rhodes – Pulitzer Prize-winning historian
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend – former Lieutenant Governor of the State of Maryland Pierce Corden – Expert Advisor, Holy See Mission to the United Nations in New York, and former US arms control official
David T. Ives – Executive Director Emeritus, The Albert Schweitzer Institute, and
Senior Advisor for the Summits of Nobel Peace Laureates Alyn Ware – Director, World Future Council Peace and Disarmament Program
Dr. Kim Phuc PHAN THI – UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, Founder Kim Foundation International
Joan Brown Campbell, Rev. Dr. – General Secretary, National Council of Churches of Christ (ret.) and Former Director, Department of Religion, Chautauqua Institution
His Holiness Tep Vong, The Great Supreme Patriarch of the Kingdom of Cambodia
His Holiness Chamgon Kenting Tai Situpa Bhai Sahib, Bhai Mohinder Singh Ahluwalia OBE KSG – Chairman of Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha and the Nishkam Group of Charitable Organizations
The Rev. Canon Sally G. Bingham – President Emerita, The Regeneration Project, Interfaith Power Light
Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr. – Four Worlds International Institute
Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq – Shaman and Healer, Greenland
Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji – Spiritual Leader and President of Parmarth Niketan Ashram, Rishikesh
Rev. Drew Christiansen, S. J. – Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Global Human Development Senior Research Fellow, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs Georgetown University
Swamini Adityananda Saraswati – Spiritual Leader and Co-Founder of Pan African Association
Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswatiji – Spiritual Leader and Secretary General of The Global Interfaith WASH Alliance
Mohanji – Humanitarian and Philanthropist, Founder of the Mohanji Foundation
Dharma master Hsin Tao – Founder Museum of World Religions
Rabbi David Rosen KSG, CBE – International Co-President of Religions for Peace
Rev. Kosho Niwano – President-Designate, Rissho Kosei Kai, Co-Moderator Religions for Peace
Bishop Rubén Tierrablanca González – ofm Apostolic Vicar of Instanbul – Latin Catholic Chur
James Carroll – Author, Historian, Journalist
Cynthia Lazaroff – Founder, NuclearWakeUpCall.Earth Dr. Karen Hallberg – Professor of Physics at Balseiro Institute, and Research Director Centro Atómico Bariloche
