AUG 6 & 9, 2009

Nagasaki Day 2009 in front SS Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Cathedral, Philadelphia, PA.

At 8:16a.m. on August 6, 1945, the first of two atomic were dropped by the United States on Japan. At the same time sixty-four years later, a siren and sound of a nuclear blast roared in front of the Valley Forge complex of Lockheed Martin, the world's largest war profiteer and the U.S. foremost nuclear weapons contractor. For the thirty-third consecutive year, the Brandywine Peace Community began its Hiroshima Day vigil for peace and commemoration. Throughout the morning, ten to twelve people vigiled with large banners and pictorials of the aftermath of the atomic bombings.

At noon, the gathering tripled in size for the start of the commemoration that included song, an audio narrative with historical sound clips of events from the "Trinity" test blast (July 16, 1945) to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and a ceremony of memory and peace, with incense, water, and ashes.

As the scent of incense wafted through the air, evoking the spirits of the dead, the Brandywine bell of peace was intoned sixty-four times, once for every year of war and nuclear weapons, since August 6, 1945. The commemoration then became a short walk to a point directly facing the Lockheed Martin building and a large lawn area where our Hiroshima Day '09 litany (see complete program and litany below) commenced with the response: "Hiroshima Nagasaki, Never Again; Resist Lockheed Martin; We Declare Peace ." As the litany concluded, nine people walked onto Lockheed Martin property spreading sunflower seeds - "In the face of sixty-four years of nuclear weapons and war, we bring sunflower seeds, the international symbol for the abolition of nuclear weapons and peace, to Lockheed Martin. Peace is a plea to save the world. On this Hiroshima Day at Lockheed Martin, we declare peace!"

The nine people were arrested, taken to the Upper Merion Police Station, and release on Disorderly Conduct citations. Arestees were: Beth Friedlan, M.J. Gentile, Mary Jo McArthur, Carroll Clay, Robert M. Smith, and Fr. Patrick Sieber, all of Philadelphia, PA; Tom Mullian and Annie Geers, from Media, PA; and Jackie Bauman, from Elmwood Park, New Jersey.

Three days later, on Sunday, August 9, about forty people gathered in front of SS Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Cathedral, center of Philadelphia's Archdiocese, in downtown Philadelphia. On August 9, 1945, another Roman Catholic cathedral, St. Mary's Cathedral in the Urakami district of Nagasaki, was ground zero for the second atomic bombing. At the time of the bombing, Nagasaki, often referred to as "the forgotten nuclear city", had the largest Christian population in all of Asia.

Joining the Brandywine Peace Community in sponsoring the Nagasaki Day Peace Dedication was Philadelphia Catholic Peace Fellowship and N.W. [Phila.] Greens.

On August 6, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan, killing an estimated 150,000 people in the immediate blast and fire. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, more than 75,000 people died in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan. More than 100,000 people died in the days and years ahead, and continue to die, from the radiation poisoning of the first atomic bombings.

Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest weapons corporation and war profiteer, the U.S.'s chief nuclear weapons and “Star Wars” contractor. In Valley Forge, Lockheed Martin, among other Pentagon contracts, produces missile related systems as well as battlefield computers used in the U.S. wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

August 6, 2009, Hiroshima Day Vigil, Remembrance & Resistance
@ Lockheed Martin, Valley Forge, PA

*8:15 a.m. (time of the Hiroshima bombing, August 6, 1945) - Memorial Vigil, beginning with siren blast and intoning of bell 64 times, representing 64 years of war and nuclear weapons.
Noon - Hiroshima Day Commemoration
*Audio broadcast, July 16 to August 6 and 9, 1945
*Music (Tom Mullian) (video)
*Reading of Account of the Hiroshima bombing
*Collection for the Brandywine Peace Community: Hiroshima survivor’s recollection, the story of Sadako (see below).
*Ceremony of memory and peace: incense, water, and ashes.
People are asked to come to the table of Hiroshima and to light a stick of incense remembering the spirits of the dead. You are then invited to take a drink of water in memory of all those who, on August 6, 1945, rushed to the rivers for relief, flung themselves into the water and instantly perished. Lastly, you are asked to take some ashes and to scatter them in front of the Lockheed Martin sign as an expression of our turning away from the business of nuclear weapons and war.

Bell-tolling (64 times) silent vigil, as the scent of the incense wafts through the air.

Behind the lead banner reading: Hiroshima Never Again, Stop Lockheed Martin, we will make a short walk to the site of today’s nonviolent resistance and enactment of peace.

Hiroshima Day ’09 Litany (see below) & Nonviolent Civil Disobedience.
ONLY THOSE PEOPLE PLANNING AND PREPARED TO FACE ARREST AND CONSEQUENCES FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE LEAVE THE SIDEWALK AND CROSS ONTO LOCKHEED MARTIN, SCATTERING SUNFLOWER SEEDS. EVERYONE ELSE, PLEASE REMAIN ON THE SIDEWALK UNTIL THE CONCLUSION OF THE DEMONSTRATION.

Reader: On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb test, code-named “Trinity,” took place in an area of desert in New Mexico called Jornada del Muerto – “Journey of Death.” J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bombs, remembered the passage from the Hindu Scripture, the Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” Hiroshima and Nagasaki, three weeks later, foretold the world that we know and the society we’ve become. The trail of nuclear weapons, militarism and war, invasions and occupations, empire, and the corporate domination of the economy and our democracy, brings us to where war is made today: Lockheed Martin.
All: Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Never Again; Resist Lockheed Martin; We Declare Peace

Reader: On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. The thermal flash and blast started fires that quickly became a firestorm until the whole city was ablaze. Birds ignited in midair. People ran to the rivers to escape, and soon the river became not a stream of flowing water but a stream of drifting dead bodies. Despite every horrifying statistic of violence and war we’ve ever heard, the statistics and memory of that day 64 years ago are still devastating. Sixty percent of the city was destroyed – hospitals, hotels, rail stations, temples, factories, houses, and scores of other buildings reduced to flaming rubble. The next morning the sun rose and revealed the dawning of the nuclear age. Where the city once stood was a wasteland of ashes and ruin, destruction and death. Three days later, Nagasaki.
All: Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Never Again; Stop Lockheed Martin; We Declare Peace

Reader: Sixty-four years of nuclear weapons and their threatened use have emboldened and outlined every imperial move of the U.S. from Vietnam to Central America to the Persian Gulf. The reality and threat of nuclear weapons continues. Whole populations and lands have been contaminated with the toxic effects of nuclear weapons production. Plutonium, which fuels nuclear bombs, has a toxic life of 240,000 years or 10,000 human generations. What has happened to the goal of an earth free of nuclear weapons, free of the threat of nuclear war? Sure, the U.S and Russia have begun to talk again, proposing at some point over the next decade mutual cuts in nuclear missiles. Right now, though, the U.S. maintains an arsenal of 10,000 nuclear weapons ready to launch the unimaginable from land, sea, and in the air, at a cost of more than $32 billion annually. Furthermore, plans for Complex Transformation (formerly Complex 2030) for future nuclear weapons design and production continue, with Lockheed Martin at the center,
All: Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Never Again; Stop Lockheed Martin; We Declare Peace

Reader: The Pentagon budget this year will well exceed $800 billion dollars, not including the wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Estimates are now that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost $2.4 trillion. Many, many suffer so very, very few may profit. Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons corporation, arms supplier, and war profiteer, the U.S.’ chief nuclear weapons contractor, is, quite simply, making a killing in war.
All: Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Never Again; Resist Lockheed Martin; We Declare Peace

Reader: In every war lies the threat of another Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Lockheed Martin is built atop the ashes of the nuclear age and the continuing wars and global nuclear reach of the U.S. military empire. Though some troops are being withdrawn from Iraq, the war and occupation continues with military commanders saying that 70,000 troops will remain indefinitely. Then there’s Afghanistan … more war with the aerial drone bombardment in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and civilian deaths on the rise; more war with increased U.S. troop deployments and more U.S. war dead — the U.S. death toll for this past month has been the deadliest (76) since the invasion of Afghanistan on October 7, 2001.
All: Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Never Again; Resist Lockheed Martin; We Declare Peace

Reader: Lockheed Martin profits at the expense of our war-torn economy, human needs, and the promise of justice. In memory of the victims of the past 64 years of war and nuclear terror, we cry out for peace and a future worthy of our hopes and our children — education, home, health care for all, justice, an honoring of the earth, peace. Nuclear weapons continue to poison our earth, our spirits, our imagination, and our judgment with the threat of unimaginable destruction and death. In the face of 64 years of nuclear weapons and war, we bring sunflower seeds, the international symbol for the abolition of nuclear weapons and peace, to Lockheed Martin. Peace is a plea to save the world. On this Hiroshima Day at Lockheed Martin, we declare peace!
All: Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Never Again; Resist Lockheed Martin; We Declare Peace

August 9, 64th Anniversary of U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki SS Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Cathedral In memory of St. Mary’s Urakami Roman Catholic Cathedral, ground zero for the second use of a nuclear bomb.

Sponsors: Brandywine Peace Community, Philadelphia Catholic Peace Fellowship, and Northwest Greens.

7:30 p.m. - 7:40 p.m. Time of gathering and vigil with Banners, Pictures of the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings
Opening and Audio Narrative: July 16 "Trinity" test to August 6-9 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Colllection for the Brandywine Peace Community & Song: A Song of Peace

Reading: Account of the Nagasaki Bombing, ground zero: St. Mary's Urakami Roman Catholic Cathedral

Readings and Dedications: Professor Howard Zinn, from why the bombs were dropped and why it matters today; Franz Jägerstätter (May 20, 1907 — August 9, 1943); Sadako Sasaki and the thousand paper cranes (see below)

Song: Study War No More

Ceremony of Memory, Remembrance, and Peace (Incense, Water, and candles) people are invited to come to the table where, in memory of the victims, you are asked to light a stick of incense to the spirits of the dead and then to take a drink of water in memory of all those who, on August 9, 1945, rushed to the Nagasaki river bed seeking relief from the scorching heat of the atomic blast, flung themselves into the water only to instantly perish. You are then asked to take a lighted candle to the steps of the Cathedral in vigil for peace and repentance from the violence of war and the sin of nuclear weapons. Candlelight vigil/bell-tolling, 64 times, once for every year of war and nuclear weapons since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Concluding Song: Cranes over Hiroshima

Ten years had passed since the day the Bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. In 1955, a thirteen year old Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki died of radiation-induced leukemia. She was one of thousands of children in Hiroshima to suffer the radioactive aftereffects that have kept killing weeks, months, years, decades, after August 6, 1945. During her illness, Sadako folded paper cranes, wishing for recovery from the fatal disease. She knew the story that says cranes live a thousand years and the person who folds a thousand paper cranes will have their wish granted. Sadako folded 644 paper cranes before she died. Her classmates folded 356 more cranes so Sadako could be buried with a thousand cranes. A monument was built in the Hiroshima Peace Park to honor the child’s memory. Each year on Hiroshima Day children throughout Japan adorn it with thousands of brightly colored paper cranes. The monument to Sadako Sasaki reads: “This is our cry, this is our prayer, Peace in the world.”

Sixty-four years ago, on August 9th, 1945, the second of the only two atomic bombs (a plutonium bomb) ever used as instruments of war (against essentially defenseless civilian populations) was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
It had been only 3 days since the first bomb, a uranium bomb, had decimated Hiroshima on August 6. The imperial government and the emperor of Japan, with the full knowledge of the Truman Administration, had searched for months for a way to end the war, which had exhausted the Japanese to virtually moribund status. (The only obstacle to surrender had been the Truman administration’s insistence on unconditional surrender, which meant that Emperor Hirohito, whom the Japanese regarded as a deity, would be removed from his figurehead position in Japan – an intolerable demand for the Japanese.)

The Russian army was advancing across Manchuria with the stated aim of entering the war against Japan on August 8, so there was an extra incentive to end the war quickly: the US military command did not want to divide any spoils or share post-war power after Japan sued for peace.

The US bomber command had spared Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Kokura from the fire bombing that had burned Tokyo to the ground and more than 60 other major Japanese cities during the first half of 1945. One of the reasons for the atomic targeting of relatively undamaged cities was to see what would happen to intact buildings – and their living inhabitants – when atomic weapons were exploded overhead.

Early in the morning of August 9, 1945, a B-29 Superfortress called Bock’s Car, took off from Tinian Island, with the prayers and blessings of its Lutheran and Catholic chaplains, and headed for Kokura, the primary target. (Its bomb was code-named "Fat Man," after Winston Churchill.)

With instructions to drop the bomb only on visual sighting, Bock’s Car arrived at Kokura, which was clouded over. So after circling three times, looking for a break in the clouds, and using up a tremendous amount of valuable fuel in the process, it headed for its secondary target, Nagasaki.

Nagasaki is famous in the history of Japanese Christianity. Not only was it the site of the largest Christian church in Asia, St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, but it also had the largest concentration of baptized Christians in all of Japan. It was the city where the legendary Jesuit missionary, Francis Xavier, established a mission church in 1549, a Christian community that survived and prospered for several generations. However within 60 years of the start of Xavier’s mission church, Japanese Christians suffered ostracism, torture and even crucifixions similar to the Roman persecutions in the first three centuries of Christianity.

In the 1850s, after the coercive gunboat diplomacy of Commodore Perry forced open an offshore island for American trade purposes, it was discovered that there were thousands of baptized Christians in Nagasaki, living their faith in a catacomb existence. In 1917, with no help from the government, the Japanese Christian community built the massive St. Mary’s Cathedral, in the Urakami River district of Nagasaki.

St. Mary’s Cathedral was one of the landmarks that the Bock’s Car bombardier had been briefed on, and looking through his bomb site over Nagasaki that day, he identified the cathedral and ordered the drop. At 11:02 a.m., Nagasaki Christianity was boiled, evaporated and carbonized in a scorching, radioactive fireball. The persecuted, vibrant, faithful, surviving center of Japanese Christianity became ground zero. What the Japanese Imperial government could not do in over 200 years of persecution was accomplished by one bomb in nine seconds. The entire worshipping community of Nagasaki was wiped out. More than 75,000 people were killed in the blast and fire of the nuclear bombing, thousands more died in the following years and decades – and continue to die – from radiation induced diseases. The Japanese announced their surrender on August 15, 1945. When the Japanese signed the papers of surrender on September 2, 1945, they did so with the condition that their emperor could remain, just as they had sought in their original surrender proposal months before the atomic bombings.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 6 -9, 1945, are the second and third largest single-day massacres in history. The largest being the fire-bombing of Tokyo on March 9, 1945 in which 80,000 – 120,000 were burned alive or incinerated.

The Catholic chaplain for the 509th Composite Group (the 1500-man Army Air Force group, whose job was to deliver the atomic bombs to their targets) was Father George Zabelka. Several decades after the war ended, Father Zabelka renounced his role in blessing the mission of Bock’s Car on August 9, 1945, and the mass slaughter that is modern war. Father Zabelka’s conversion to nonviolence led him to devote the remaining decades of his life speaking out against violence, especially the violence of militarism. The Lutheran chaplain, William Downey, in his counseling of soldiers who had become troubled by their participation in war, later denounced all killing, whether by a single bullet or by a weapon of mass destruction.

The United States Strategic Bomb Survey, whose team interviewed important Japanese decision-makers right after the war, concluded that certainly prior to December 1945, and in all probability, prior to November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.

So why? Evidence from classified documents tells a very different story than the one spun after the war, all having to do with post-war power perceptions and projections. Keeping the Soviets out of the war and therefore out of post-war spoils in Asia was an impetus.

Moreover, also having to do with the Soviet Union, was the belief, in the words of Secretary of State Edward Burns, that “the bomb would make the Soviets more manageable in post-war Europe.” Having “the biggest stick in the playground” were the words of Gen. Leslie R. Groves, military director of the Manhattan project, which developed and built the first atomic bombs. There’s also the $2 billion investment in building the bomb, adding to what Freeman Dyson, Princeton scientist and Operations Analyst with Royal Air Force Bomber Command during the war, described “as the sheer and irresistible technological momentum of using what you’ve built”

Acclaimed history professor, Howard Zinn, who as a bombardier flew bombing missions over Europe from 1943 to 1945, insists that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were about making “a point,” and therefore were less of a military tactic than “an act of mass terror.” Professor Zinn states, “When private bands of fanatics commit atrocities we call them terrorists, which they are, and have no trouble dismissing their reasons. But when governments do the same, and on a much larger scale, the word terrorism is not used, and we consider it a sign of our democracy that the acts become subject to debate. If the word “terrorism” has a useful meaning (and I believe it does, because it marks off an act as intolerable, since it involves the indiscriminate use of violence against human beings for some political purpose, to make a point) then it applies exactly to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

What, though, does this have to do with us today? Again quoting Professor Zinn: “This is a question not just about some past and irretrievable event involving someone else, but about all of us, living today in the midst of outrages different in detail but morally equivalent, to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The continued accumulation by nations (ours being first) of atomic weapons a thousand times more deadly, ten thousand times more numerous, than those first bombs. The expenditure each year of a trillion dollars for these and what are soberly called ‘conventional’ weapons, while millions of children die each year for lack of food or medical care.”