Community Corner
Hiroshima, Nagasaki Bombings' Anniversary Vigils Under Way
A candlelight vigil tonight at 7 p.m. in downtown Santa Cruz will commemorate the 1945 bombings.
—By Bay City News Service
The Bay Area is commemorating the 68th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings in 1945 with events today that allow for reflection, with a focus on the dangers of nuclear weapons.
Community groups organized a 7 a.m. rally and vigil at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs, which helped organize the rally, said participants drew outlines of their bodies on the ground with chalk at four entrances to the facility to symbolize those who died in the bombings.
The event included remarks by the Rev. Nobu Hanaoka, a survivor of the Nagasaki bombing.
Hanaoka was only an infant during the bombing, which killed his mother, brother and sister.
He discussed the emotional toll he faced after the bombing and called for the abolishment of nuclear weapons, Kelley said.
Lab spokeswoman Lynda Seaver said the Alameda County Sheriff's Office cited 31 people for blocking the facility's west entrance.
A sheriff's office spokesman was not immediately available to provide details this morning.
The United States dropped the "Little Boy" bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and three days later the "Fat Man" bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
A candlelight vigil tonight in downtown Santa Cruz will commemorate the 1945 bombings, in addition to the Fukushima Daichii nuclear plant disaster following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine.
The 7 p.m. vigil, which will be held at the "Collateral Damage" sculpture at North Pacific Avenue and Water Street, is sponsored by People United for Peace of Santa Cruz and other groups.
The 12th annual San Francisco Bay Area Peace Lantern Ceremony in Berkeley's Aquatic Park on Saturday included remarks by author Takashi Tanemori, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing.
Attendees decorated colorful peace lanterns with messages including "No More Nukes" and "Forgiveness" that floated on the lake during the evening event.
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