by Jeannie Connerney and Jeanne Trubek
Commemorating the original child bomb – and mobilizing against its successors.
In 1912, Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo City gave 3,000 cherry trees to Washington, D.C. to celebrate the growing friendship between the United States and Japan. Thirty-three years later, on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and the second one on Nagasaki three days later. Over 100,000 people’s lives were terminated instantly and by the end of that year, over 210,000 people were dead from the blasts. Countless others were maimed or suffered horrendous long-term effects of radiation.
In what he called his “anti-poem,” Original Child Bomb, Trappist monk and writer Thomas Merton describes the events leading up to August 6 in a stark, bureaucratic style. In this essay, he refers to a phrase from a radio speech given by President Harry S. Truman on August 9, 1945: “We found the bomb, and we used it.”
Last Tuesday, August 6, in Dedham square, five members of Saint Susanna’s parish read Merton’s “anti-poem” to mark the catastrophic beginning of the nuclear era. Others handed out flyers and displayed a banner reading “Nuclear Arms are Illegal” designed to alert drivers and pedestrians to the 2021 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons—a treaty that aims ultimately at eliminating all nuclear weapons. Baskets of paper cranes lay on a table commemorating Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who suffered from leukemia from radiation exposure due to the Hiroshima bomb at when she was two years old. Sadako has been memorialized for folding more than 1,000 paper cranes during her last days before dying in a hospital at age 12. Paper cranes have since become a symbol of hope for an end to nuclear weapons.
On Saturday August 9, Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment (WCPJE) organized Back from the Brink–Remembering the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—80 Years Ago, in Watertown square. The annual event began with a silent vigil in which many demonstrators held signs displaying messages such as “Imagine a Nuclear Free Future” and “Bi
llions for Nukes = Zero for Kids, Healthcare, Food, Security, Housing.” After the vigil, the participants moved to the Watertown Delta where they were welcomed by Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin and Tony Palomba. They heard speakers including Buddhist Monk Sensei Morris Sullivan, Owen Madus from Massachusetts Peace Action, and Todd Gross from Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice, and the Environment. “Nuclear weapons are omnicidal,” Owen reminded the group. “Not only are they deeply immoral, they are insane. Human beings and nuclear weapons cannot coexist.”
Todd spoke about Watertown Citizens’ campaign to join 70 other cities in the United States (including 14 in Massachusetts) thathave passed a Back from the Brink resolution, based on five points from the organization Prevent Nuclear War, including pursuing agreements, ending the sole authority of any U.S. president to launch an attack, and taking U.S. nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert. The resolution has been endorsed by multiple organizations, civic leaders, and elected officials, including Massachusetts Representatives Lynch, McGovern, Neal, and Pressley. Members of WCPJE have collected signatures of over 400 registered voters in Watertown supporting the resolution, and will present the petitions to the City Council soon.
The commemoration then moved across the street to the DCR dock on the Charles River with people holding paper lanterns. Suzy Giroux led the crowd in singing, and Rabbi Gregory Hersh, as well as two people from the crowd, addressed the group,. Two canoeists floated candle boats on the river as Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin serenaded the group with flute music.
Despite the sadness of the occasion, Sensei Sullivan added beauty to the day with the story of the paper cranes and his remindeer. that, “Cherry blossoms always fall, but we can still prioritize peace.”
