Area peace activists remember Hiroshima, Nagasaki bombings

BANGOR – At the signal of a ringing bell, 18 people spread themselves like corpses on the brick and concrete Friday in front of the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building, symbolizing the Japanese civilians who died during the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in August 1945, which killed more than 170,000 people at the end of World War II.

Signs claiming “No More Hiroshimas” and “$ For Healthcare, not nukes,” lay at their sides during a three-minute silent vigil for the first and only atomic bomb attacks. The Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine and the Bangor chapter of Veterans for Peace sponsored the ceremony.

“Don’t forget Pearl Harbor,” someone shouted out of his car window driving by the building. The participants of the Hiroshima Commemorative Die-In remained silent.

“The victims of the bombings did not feel they needed to retaliate and take revenge,” said Ilze Petersons of the Peace and Justice Center after the vigil in response to the passer-by’s comment. She said she understands why some people feel the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified because of the attacks on Pearl Harbor but that “it’s the same connection that people make, unfortunately, between the twin towers being attacked by terrorists and Saddam Hussein, when there isn’t a real connection.”

In Hiroshima, Japan, an annual event remembering the casualties of the attack consisted of a silent prayer and releasing doves into the air. Petersons said the center chose to symbolize the event by arranging their bodies like corpses in order to capture the tragedy of the bombings.

“As horrifying as it is, it’s important that we symbolically remember exactly what happened,” she said.

A silent procession and vigil also was held Friday in Portland.

During the ceremony, Bob McElwain with Veterans for Peace read an excerpt from a statement by the mayor of Hiroshima, which spoke of the survivors’ willingness to talk about what happened to them.

“To talk about an experience burned so intensely into one’s unconscious is to re-experience the unspeakable pain of that day,” read the choked-up McElwain, who served in Vietnam.

As he read, another passer-by shouted, “Nuke those [expletive].”

The protesters presented a letter at the ceremony urging Maine’s senators to vote against funding the development and testing of new nuclear weapons when considering the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2005.

The bill asks for funds for advanced concepts research, the robust nuclear earth penetrator study, the modern pit facility, and enhanced test readiness. The House of Representatives has voted not to allocate funds for these components of the bill, for which the protesters thanked U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud.

“We cannot credibly ask other countries to restrain their nuclear weapons programs while we aggressively advance work on new weapons,” the letter reads.