The following announcement was provided by the Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice, and the Environment:
Please join us on Sunday, Aug. 9 to commemorate the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9 in 1945. There will be sign making at 6 p.m. in Watertown Square followed by a silent vigil at 6:30 p.m. We will move the Charles River MDCR Dock for music and presentations at 7:30 p.m. Our annual floating of candle boats will take place at 8:30 p.m.
Participants include Suzy Giroux, singer and activist, Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin, flutist and WCPJE President, and Jeanne Trubek and Tod Gross, members of the WCPJE Nuclear Disarmament Committee. Ray Matsumiya, Executive Director of the Oleander Initiative and the grandson of a Hiroshima bombing victim, is our special guest.
We stand in silence and float candle boats because more than 210,00 were killed and many more injured in the only use of atomic weapons on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9 1945 and because the danger of nuclear war is ever present and growing daily. We believe that without a powerful grassroots movement dedicated to the abolition of nuclear weapons the unthinkable – another Hiroshima or Nagasaki – is possible.
WCPJE wishes to extended its appreciation to the NE American Friends Service Committee and Massachusetts Peace Action for their helping in making this event possible. The alternative location in the event of rain is First Parish Watertown at 35 Church Street, Watertown.
Please visit www.watertowncitizens.org and www.facebook.com/WatertownCitizensPJE. For a listing of other activities remembering the events of Aug. 6 and 9, visit www.masspeaceaction.org