Peace House hosted observance of 79th anniversary of atomic bomb dropping on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; guest speakers included Hiroshima survivor, activists, musician
By Emma Coke, Ashland.news
The sun peeked through the thick foliage of Lithia Park’s entrance just before 8 a.m. on Tuesday, casting a warm early-morning glow on the neat rows of chairs set up for the Rogue Valley Hiroshima-Nagasaki Vigil.
Peace House, a local nonprofit focused on peace and justice, has helped host the vigil annually each Aug. 6 since 1985 to commemorate the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and “to create a remembrance of the horrifying explosion,” said Elizabeth Hallet, executive director.
The vigil began with the lighting of the memorial flame by Cynthia Taylor, Peace House board member, followed by an invocation by the Rev. Fred Grewe.
Grewe said that on one level, they gathered together to remember the hundreds of thousands of lives lost to the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and on another level, to remind ourselves of what we are capable of as a species.
“Hiroshima is an icon of what we are capable of as a species at our worst,” the Rev. Grewe said.
At 8:15 a.m., Teddie Hight of Medford sounded a gong, marking the time the atomic bomb descended upon Hiroshima, Japan. A minute of silence followed.
Hideko Tamura Snider, a Hiroshima survivor, stepped to the front of the gathering of about 60 people. She thanked the audience profusely, saying she was so proud of everyone for showing up and displaying their commitment.
Tamura Snider, who lives in Medford, then spoke of the morning the bomb dropped. She was only 10 when it happened.
“I lost my universe, I lost my dear mother,” Tamura Snider said.
She described the moment the bomb dropped and the aftermath.
“The sound that I had heard,” Tamura Snider said. “It was enormously loud…. (a) huge, huge explosion, and then, simultaneously, a flash.”
The bomb created a 15-minute pitch black envelope that encased Hiroshima. She said she wondered in that time if she was dead.
“I’m telling you this because this was a human event,” Tamura Snider said.
After the 15 minutes, she saw a faint light piercing through the pitch black. She managed to crawl toward it, and saw the bright, blue sky of the once typical morning.
“Hooray to life, from a Hiroshima survivor,” Tamura Snider said.
Masako Cross, a special guest musician from Tokyo, Japan, then took the stage.
“One summer day, while I was walking through the forest of this town, I felt the souls of the atomic bombs’ victims looking down from the trees,” Cross said. “They seemed to be chanting for us to remember them.”
She played the piano, singing her song, “Souls.”
Ashland Mayor Tonya Graham read a city of Ashland proclamation.
“Now, therefore, I, Tonya Graham, mayor of Ashland, hereby proclaim (Aug. 6), 2024 as Hiroshima Day, and (Aug. 9), 2024, as Nagasaki Day,” Graham said.
Related event
Peace House hosts “The Doomsday Machine: Remembering Daniel Ellsberg,” a discussion and memorial event for the late Daniel Ellsberg, revered lifetime anti-nuclear activist and whistleblower, who died last August. The event will include a viewing of a one-hour video and discussion with action opportunities afterwards. The event starts at 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9, at Peace House, 543 S. Mountain Ave. For more information, go to peacehouse.net or call 541-482-9625.
Ashland became a Nuclear Free Zone in 1982 by way of a ballot measure supported by Peace House, and in 1985, the first vigil was held.
Ashland became a Mayors for Peace city in 1998 in response to a global invitation to eradicate nuclear weapons by the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As of July 1, there are over 8,403 Mayors for Peace cities in 166 nations, including 227 in the United States and eight in Oregon.
Peace activist Herbert Rothschild was the last speaker of the vigil.
“We have to ask ourselves why, in 2024, the world is so threatened by nuclear,” Rothschild said.
He spoke of the nuclear arms race, and the continuation of the U.S. to develop nuclear weapons beyond the end of the Cold War, an effort that’s still ongoing.
“No U.S. president, neither a Democrat or a Republican, has had the moral intelligence or the moral power to tell these people to stop,” Rothschild said.
Rothschild described the nuclear weapons development program as a “full-scale modernization and overhaul.”
“It is fed by our tax dollars and it threatens to kill us,” Rothschild said.
The event concluded with the water ceremony. All guests were invited to ladle water onto a rock, signifying the soothing of the atomic bomb victims.
Email Ashland.news reporter intern Emma Coke at [email protected].
Founding Ashland.news board President Herbert Rothschild is currently a volunteer member of its Development Committee.
Aug. 7: Corrected name of person sounding gong.
Related stories:
‘It’s an important reminder’: Peace House to host annual Hiroshima & Nagasaki Vigil (Aug. 3, 2024)
Relocations: Why didn’t the U.S. lead the world to nuclear abolition after 1991? (Aug. 1, 2024)
Oregon Peace Tree effort enhanced by local arborist’s visit to Japan (Dec. 4, 2023)
Hiroshima survivor: ‘My mother had said, “Go to the river”’ (Aug. 14, 2023)
Hiroshima remembrance: ‘Your presence here today is an act of resistance’ (Aug. 7, 2023)
One Hiroshima survivor nurtures seedling sprouted from another survivor (Aug. 8, 2022)
