78 Years Since Hiroshima: Pittsfield

Sunday 6 August 2023 marks 78 years since humans first used nuclear weapons against other humans.

There will be a Hiroshima Day Vigil that Sunday from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. on the sidewalk around Park Square in Pittsfield, MA. At 8:15 a.m., the time the A-bomb fissioned above Hiroshima, there will be 5 minutes of silence. That bomb alone killed about 140,000 human beings. This will be the 42st consecutive Hiroshima Day Vigil at Park Square.

According to the Nobel Peace Prize winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), there are over13,000 nuclear weapons on Earth today. Nine countries possess nuclear weapons: Russia, the United States, France, England, China, Pakistan, India, North Korea, and Israel. Russia with about 6,255 and the U.S. with about 5,550 have over 90% of them. Five nations, Turkey, Italy, Belgium, Germany, and Netherlands, “host” about 170 more U.S. nuclear weapons.

ICAN reports, “Nine countries spent $82.9 billion on nuclear weapons, of which the private sector earned at least $29 billion in 2022. The United States spent more than all of the other nuclear armed states combined, $43.7 billion. Russia spent 22% of what the U.S. did, at $9.6 billion, and China spent just over a quarter of the U.S. total, at $11.7 billion.” That’s about $130 per person in the U.S. alone.

The U.S. plans to spend $2 trillion more on nuclear weapons over the next 30 years (averaging about $67 billion every year, or over $202 per person per year).

Signs will be provided at the Park Square vigil, or people may bring their own. Pittsfield does not allow signs on sticks. Participants may stay for all or part of the hour.

The sponsor is Berkshire Citizens for Peace and Justice.