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Suggestions for Planning Hiroshima/Nagasaki Events1. Hiroshima/Nagasaki Days: How to Organize a “Contemplative Action” Hiroshima/Nagasaki Days: How to Organize a “Contemplative Action” by Maia Duerr, BPF Executive Director In August 2003, the Pioneer Valley Buddhist Peace Fellowship Chapter, in Western Massachusetts, created an all-day series of events to commemorate Hiroshima/Nagasaki. The elements that went into the planning provide helpful examples of how to organize a “Buddhist” social action that brings together awareness and action. We hope these details are helpful to your planning process.
1. Create a contemplative atmosphere; link reflection to action.One hallmark of Buddhist social action is the intimate connection between reflection and action. In downtown Northampton, we created a public contemplative space and invited passersby to join a metta meditation with local Vipassana teacher Arinna Weisman. With the cooperation of the downtown Unitarian Universalist church, we set up zafus and zabutons in a circle under a tree on their lawn, right on Main Street. Only a few steps away, our colleagues from AFSC (American Friends Service Committee) set up a display of photos from Hiroshima and Nagasaki that graphically depicted the destruction of the bombings. Throughout the afternoon, dozens of people who were walking along the sidewalk stopped by to quietly look, sometimes answering their children’s questions about Japan and the war. The combination of the photos plus the opportunity to quietly reflect on them created an atmosphere that deepened understanding about the devastation of nuclear weapons, and inspired people to act from their understanding. In the evening, we held a potluck dinner open to the community with the monks and nuns from the Peace Pagoda, who then led us on a walk to a nearby pond at dusk. we held a candlelight vigil as a circle of nearly 70 people spoke mindfully about their reflections of that day. At the conclusion, one BPF member who was a cellist offered beautiful music as the sky darkened. We watched silently as two other members launched in a canoe to float peace lanterns on the quiet lake. It was an emotional and moving end to the day. You may also want to find out about the Jizos for Peace project, initiated by Jan Chozen Bays. Jan’s vision is to visit Japan in 2005 on the 60th anniversary of the bombings, with a Jizo for each of the hundreds of thousands of people who have died. See www.jizosforpeace.org or contact the Great Vow Zen Monastery, PO Box 368, Clatskanie, OR 97016, USA.
2. Provide information and an opportunity for action. Along with opportunities for meditation and reflection, have information available so that people can educate themselves about the effects of nuclear weapons and atomic energy. Three issues you may want to highlight:
Helpful Websites with sources for information on nuclear weapons, waste, and depleted uranium:
Along with the information, you can make it easy for people to channel their concerns into action. At the 2003 event, we provided postcards addressed to legislators to call for a stop to the building of new nuclear plant. We also had blank postcards addressed to President Bush so that people could write their own message. At the end of the day, we had collected nearly 200 signed cards to mail.
3. Encourage children’s participation.Children are our best hope for creating a nuclear-free future. A number of events can be organized throughout the day for their participation, such as singing, storytelling, and folding peace cranes (see www.sadako.org/foldingcranes.htm for instructions),. At the Pioneer Valley event, we invited the mayor of Northampton to read to children from the book Sadako and a Thousand Paper Cranes, by Eleanor Coerr (Puffin Books, 1999). Sadako was two years old when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. As she grew up, Sadako was a strong, courageous and athletic girl. In 1955, at age 11, while practicing for a big race, she became dizzy and fell to the ground. Sadako was diagnosed with leukemia, a consequence of radiation exposure. Her best friend told her of an old Japanese legend which said that anyone who folds a thousand paper cranes would be granted a wish. Sadako hoped that the gods would grant her a wish to get well so that she could run again. She started to work on the paper cranes and completed over 1000 before dying at the age of twelve.
4. Build coalitions.Actions have the most impact when groups of people with common concerns organize and act together. Speak with other groups in your area -- Buddhist sanghas, faith groups from all traditions, environmental groups, peace and justice organizations -- to see how you can coordinate your activities. In the Pioneer Valley, a coalition of local groups, including BPF, planned ahead of time so that each day from August 5 – 9, a different community would host a different type of event. Some sponsored speakers, some planned peaceful marches. All the organizations composed a joint press release so that the media would take notice of the large number of events happening. You can build coalitions with friends overseas as well. Tadatoshi Akiba, the mayor of Hiroshima, Japan, serves as President of Mayors for Peace. Mayor Akiba has a profound understanding of the dangers posed by nuclear weapons. His experiences have shown him that nuclear weapons are intrinsically related to other security concerns: fundamental challenges such as hunger and poverty, refugees and human rights, and environmental protection. Mayors for Peace launched its “2020 Vision: An Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons” campaign last November. The Campaign aims to build an “overwhelming presence” of the world’s mayors, NGO representatives, and citizens at the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference at the U.N. in April 2005. Contact your own city’s mayor and invite him or her to publicly endorse this initiative. For more details about the Mayor for Peace initiative, see www.abolition2000.org/groups/mayors/ or contact:
The International Shadow Project Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) is excited to announce that plans are underway for the second International Shadow Project, scheduled to take place on August 6th, 2005. We are asking you to consider taking part in this action and forwarding this information to other members in your communities. The Shadow Project was designed to invoke a symbolic landscape of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at ground zero where the heat of the atomic blast vaporized human beings, leaving only a shadow image etched permanently into the pavement. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the bombings and the Shadow Project is a way to commemorate the loss of lives that resulted from the only use of nuclear weapons against civilians. The Shadow Project is political art. The project began in 1982 in New York City, came to Portland in 1983, and spread to the rest of the world two years later as the first International Shadow Project in 1985, and involved over 15,000 participants in 426 cities throughout 26 countries in the world. At the time, it was touted to be perhaps the largest anti-nuclear event ever staged. Participants painted impermanent human silhouettes on the sidewalks in the middle of the night of August 5th. Images of nuclear victims provoked curiosity and debate. For a short time, nuclear vaporization became a household word, fulfilling one of the project’s aims: to increase awareness of the unthinkable destruction of nuclear war. The International Shadow Project received considerable media coverage and even TIME Magazine displayed the shadow images. Ed Begley, Jr, Martin Sheen, Barbara Kingsolver and Ursula LeGuin have endorsed the event and Oregon PSR is contacting other celebrity endorsers. We would be delighted if you have celebrity contacts from your countries you feel would like to endorse and help publicize this event. Through this public art project and the resulting media attention, we will remind people of the inhumane cruelty of a nuclear bomb and generate public pressure for the abolition of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. This can be done by using materials for the SMART Security platform (Sensible Multilateral American Response to Terrorism), that was created by PSR to provide a strong proactive position for those concerned about the threat of terrorism and the expansion of nuclear weapons or through your own advocacy programs in your countries to emphasize the need to follow the rule of law, improve international treaties, address the root causes of terrorism, and focus on real security. We believe the use of art as a reminder is both appropriate and effective to generate the media attention this issue deserves. Our staff has developed a web site that will provide organizing materials to cities in the US and throughout the world to create their own Shadow Project. Basic materials are be easily downloadable and user friendly to edit for your own use at www.shadowprojecthome.org. With your help, the effect of this project can be that much greater, and the struggle to end nuclear proliferation re-galvanized. We hope that you will be able to support a Shadow Project in your city. Please reply with your intentions at info@shadowprojecthome.org so we may link your project with the website. Also please forward this information to your sister organizations. We also welcome any support or ideas to make the project better. Thank you for your efforts and interest in promoting the well-being of all. For further information about our organization and programs, please visit www.psr.org and www.OregonPSR.org.
In peace and solidarity, Catherine Thomasson, MD Kate Feit Board President, Oregon PSR Shadow Project Intern 503-819-1170
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