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NAGASAKI DAY REMEMBRANCE – CANDLELIGHT PLEA FOR PEACE ACROSS FROM BASILICA STS. PETER & PAUL
August 9, 2025 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
80th Anniversary of Bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, August 6 & 9, 1945
NAGASAKI DAY: Plea for Peace & Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
Cosponsored by: Brandywine Peace Community &
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) — Philadelphia Branch
Saturday, August 9, at 7:30 p.m.
In front of Basilica, SS Peter & Paul Cathedral, 230 18th St., Phila., PA
Candlelight vigil, followed by a ceremony for peace,
led by women, in memory of the victims bombing of Nagasaki.
Often called “the forgotten nuclear city,” Nagasaki at the time was the largest Christian population throughout all of Asia. Ground zero for the second atomic bombing was the St. Mary’s Urakami Cathedral. An estimated 40,000 were killed immediately, with tens of thousands dying later. Participants are committed to a discipline of “Nonviolence of fist, tongue, and heart,” in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Saturday, August 9, beginning at 7:30p.m., you are invited to gather in front of the Basilica of SS Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Cathedral, 18th & Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, PA. From there, in memory of the world’s second act of nuclear terror, we will send out a candlelight plea for peace that recognizes nuclear weapons as affront to God’s human life and goodness.
On Nagasaki Day People are invited to stand or sit with large banners and posters, and pictorials of the aftermath of the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. In front of the Basilica of SS Peter and Paul, candles and incense will be lit for peace in memory of the St. Mary’s Urakami Cathedral and all the victims of war and nuclear weapons. There will be readings and the ringing of our bell of peace 80 times in support of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which has declared nuclear weapons ILLEGAL. Support the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, http://www.icanw.org/the-treaty .
Event is subject to change due to severe weather (severe HEAT or STORMS). Please check this webpage on August 8. Participants should bring water, sunblock, and a folding chair, if you wish to sit.
The time has come for a renewed religious urgency in facing the continuing reality of nuclear weapons and the threat of nuclear war. In and through your faith act for justice, humanity, and peace.
“Therefore Choose Life, so that you and your children may live.”
– Book of Deuteronomy
A photo taken by U.S. Marine Joe O’Donnell, showing a boy carrying his dead brother on his back after the Nagasaki bombing.
Photograph: Vincenzo Pinto/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/24/pope-francis-calls-for-a-world-without-nuclear-weapons-during-nagasaki-visit