Paper Cranes

Originally uploaded by holisticgeek

This evening I attended a remembrance event for the 62nd anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While at the Lyndale Park Peace Garden in Minneapolis, we were led on a procession by the Women in Black, learned the story of Sadako and folded paper cranes, then witnessed a commemorative Tea Ceremony.

Hiroshima Day is very special to me, as it is the time to remember the over 210,000 people who died in the nuclear blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the past, I have participated in chalk drawings of body outlines to remember those who became only “shadows on pavement” as they were vaporized in the blasts.

Nuclear weapons have been declared illegal by international law, yet the United States maintains the largest, and ever increasing, arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world. Today, the smallest nuclear bomb in any US arsenal is over five times as powerful as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The largest nuclear device ever tested, a 50 megaton bomb, would have a blast area of 30 miles, sending out further fires from the blast, over 140 miles further from the blast area.

As we work for peace in the world, we should remember these 210,000 lives that were lost in a moment, and say “Never Again!”

This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world!