Around 100 people gathered at Corvallis’ Riverfront Commemorative Park on Wednesday night to memorialize the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August 1945.
The event featured speakers, traditional Japanese music and a candlelit walk to the Van Buren Bridge. But for organizer Leah Bolger, it was as much about the future as it was about the bombings 74 years ago.
“We have this ceremony to recommit ourselves to working against these weapons so they are never used again,” she said.
Bolger added that the anniversary of the bombings is a time to remember to the destruction of nuclear weapons and the danger they pose.
“The use of just one nuke could start a chain reaction that destroys the world,” she said.
According to Bolger, a majority of Americans want nuclear weapons abolished. However, she believes President Donald Trump is taking the country in the wrong direction on nuclear weapons by pulling out of the Iran deal, increasing funding for nuclear weapons, and withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
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“We are the majority, we just need to make our congresspeople realize it,” she said.
The Oregon Legislature this year passed a resolution, Senate Joint Memorial 5, which calls on the president and Congress to work toward nuclear disarmament. Oregon is one of only two states to pass a resolution of this kind. Bolger said people should support this statement and get involved with organizations behind the event, such as hers, World Beyond War; Veterans for Peace; and Women’s International League for Peace-Corvallis Branch.
Also speaking at the event were Pat Hoover, a Hanford downwinder; Fred Schafer of the National Association of Atomic Veterans; and Russ Yamada, whose grandmother emigrated from Hiroshima in 1912.
Corvallis Mayor Biff Traber also appeared at the event, speaking about the power of people working together to create peace.
“We have to eliminate nuclear weapons so we can survive to build a world of peace,” he said.
Anthony Rimel covers weekend events, education, courts and crime and can be reached at anthony.rimel@lee.net, 541-812-6091, or via Twitter @anthonyrimel.