60th Anniversary Commemoration

The Coalition’s Annual Commemoration of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is being planned for FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 5, IN PRINCETON.

BYO picnic (no alcoholic beverages) at 6 PM, Program starts at 7 PM at the Woodrow Wilson School Plaza, Washington Road near intersection with Prospect St.

Speaker: Akiko Seitelbach, who was a 22 year old resident of Nagasaki at the time of the atomic bombing. She will recount what she witnessed that day and in the aftermath. Ms. Seitelbach now lives in Monroe Township, NJ.

A survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki will share her eyewitness recollections at Coalition for Peace Action’s annual Commemoration of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The ceremony will be at the Woodrow Wilson School Plaza, located just off Washington Road (Route 571) near the intersection with Prospect Street, on Friday, August 5, the 60th anniversary of the 1945 Hiroshima bombing.

The evening will begin with a Bring-Your-Own picnic at 6 (no alcoholic beverages permitted), followed by the program at 7 PM. The program will include a minute of silence at 7:15 PM, the exact time that the bomb dropped on Hiroshima (8:15 AM on August 6). In the event of rain, the program only at 7 PM will be held in McCosh 50, the building just across Washington Road from the Plaza.

Ms. Akiko Seitelbach, who was a 22 year old in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, the day of the atomic bombing, will speak about that experience. Ms. Seitelbach, who now lives at the Rosmoor housing development in Jamesburg, NJ, speaks excellent English.

The evening will include presentations of Japanese flute music by Glen Swan; and rock music by John Kasper. Anthony Krizan of the Spin Doctors produced Mr. Kasper’s new anti-war song, “Conspiracy of Silence.”

The Commemoration will also include folding and stringing of origami cranes, the Japanese symbol of peace, as the culmination of the Princeton Cranes for Peace Project. The project, which has been coordinated by Liz Cohen of Princeton, has involved sponsoring origami crane folding each weekend at the Princeton Public Library.

The custom of crane folding originated with a girl named Sadako who died in 1955 from radiation-induced leukemia in Hiroshima. Sadako tried to fold 1,000 paper cranes before her death, to fulfill the folk custom that one who did so would be healed. She made it to 644 cranes before dying, and a famous children’s book was written about her and has circulated worldwide.

The program will conclude around 8:30 PM, as darkness falls, with the floating of candles on the fountain to commemorate the estimated 200,000 civilians who died immediately and in the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This follows the custom used at the commemoration on each anniversary in Hiroshima. For further information, contact the Coalition at (609) 924-5022 or visit their web site, www.peacecoalition.org.

“The purpose of this event is not to look back with 20-20 hindsight to question whether the atomic bombings in 1945 were justified. What’s done is done. Rather, our reason for having this commemoration is to remember the absolute horror that nuclear weapons represent, and re-commit ourselves to working for the global abolition of nuclear weapons so such total destruction can never again be inflicted on anyone. With the Bush administration seeking funding for new US nuclear weapons and the possible resumption of US nuclear testing, that work is more urgent than ever,” said the Rev. Robert Moore, the Coalition’s executive director.