Peace Talk — Autumn 2005

Sixty years ago, nuclear weaponw were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. From that day on, the world has lived under a nuclear shadow. Today the danger of another nuclear holocaust is greater than ever. More nations are pursuing nuclear weapons, and tons of nuclear bomb-making material remains unsecured and vulnerable to theft by those who would not be deterred from using a nuclear weapon.

Photo: Jacqui Deveneau

Over 200,000 people were killed by those two bombs. Since then, nuclear weapons have posed the single greatest threat to the survival of our species. Each year Peace Action Maine joins other peace groups around the state in commemoration of this tragedy.

At the Brunswick Peace Fair on August 6th, several groups joined to create paper patterns of shadows that represent those who were incinerated in Hiroshima—nothing was left but their shadows imprinted on building walls. These paper patterns were then outlined on sheer white cloth and hung around the bandstand on the mall in Brunswick.

On Friday, August 5th the Bangor peace community carried out a full day of activities in front of the Bangor Library. Pianist Masanobu Ikemiya, whose family survived the bombing, played the piano in the park in front of the library and spoke. Mayor Frank Farrington, who is a WWII veteran, read the Mayors for Peace Proclamation, and churches rang their bells. There was paper crane folding, and a die-in that included the Shadow Project.

On Monday, August 8th in Portland, groups dispersed to central locations around the city and drew shadow outlines on city parks, streets and sidewalks while handing out literature explaining the project.

On Tuesday, August 9th, surrounded by the hanging cloth shadows and shadow outlines on the paving stones, Jim Cloutier, former Portland mayor, read the Mayors for Peace proclamation signed by Mayor Jill Duson. Dr. Paul Liebow, a Bangor emergency room physician, whose father was a U.S. doctor assigned to go into Hiroshima after the bombing, was the honored speaker. He was then awarded the Mayors for Peace Proclamation.

On the same day in Augusta, peace activists gathered between the State House and the State Office Building.Tom Sturtevant of Veterans for Peace had a poster display with pictures and quotes of various civilian and military leaders who questioned the necessity of dropping the bomb. In addition they drew lime shadows on the parking lot and paper shadows on a grassy knoll.

May use of nuclear weapons never be a choice again.