SURVIVAL: Strategies & Actions for a Nuclear Weapons Free World

Event including screening of the Journey of Repentance documentary by Ashley Michael Karitis, expert panel on nuclear weapons, and live teleconference with Steven Leeper from the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation will take place on March 28th and April 11th.

Sunday, March 28, 2010
1:30 - 5:00pm
Urban Grace Church
904 Market Street
Tacoma, WA

Sunday, April 11, 2010
1:30 - 5:00pm
Seattle University, Campion Ballroom
Seattle, WA

There are 30,000 nuclear warheads in the world and 15,500 are currently deployed or triggered. One of the largest nuclear weapons stockpiles is at Bangor Naval Base in Bangor, WA., 20 miles west of Seattle.....

Join us in this multimedia event that will update you on nuclear weapons and the implications they have on the economy, the environment, your health, and international law.

1.30-1.50pm - OVERVIEW and introduction

2pm - WORLD PREMIERE of the short documentary that followed Tacoma's own Journey of Repentance to Japan; directed by Ashley Michael Karitis

3pm - EXPERTS PANEL on NUCLEAR WEAPONS that will include:

-the local and global presence of nuclear weapons
-health and environmental consequences
-how the stockpiling of nuclear weapons violates international law
-the economics of nuclear weapons

4pm - LIVE TELECONFERENCE WITH STEVEN LEEPER FROM THE HIROSHIMA PEACE CULTURE FOUNDATION

-a LIVE video conference from Hiroshima to answer your questions about the upcoming Non-Proliferation Treaty Review in May 2010 at the UN

4.30pm - STRATEGIES & ACTIONS - What can YOU do and how YOU can get involved!


EVENT INCLUDES FREE FOOD AND REFRESHMENTS! Please try to bring 10 friends to help educate our communities about the dangers of nuclear weapons.

EVENT SPONSORS include City of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Hiroshima Peace and Culture Foundation, and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum

**PARKING in Tacoma** is available on Market and 9th streets. Behind the church, "Court D" or paid parking on 9th Avenue is also available

What don't you know about the NPT?

Take the Non-Proliferation Treaty Tutorial at http://www.nti.org/h_learnmore/npttutorial/index.html!

Reading Hiroshima

Several participants on the Journey of Repentance recommended that I read Hiroshima by John Hersey, and I recently had the opportunity to take their advice. Although I finished reading Hiroshima over a week ago, the images and vivid memories of the people interviewed remain burned in my thoughts.

Hersey begins on the morning of August 6th, 1945, when the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Nearly a hundred thousand people died from the blow, and another hundred thousand were injured and would experience both physical and social repercussions for years, some for a lifetime. The true stories of six hibakusha (explosion-affected persons) are told through their perspectives and reflections of others. Hersey guides us through the hours, days, months, and ultimately decades following the bombing, showing us through the eyes of a clerk, a physician, a mother, a German priest, a surgeon, and a Methodist Pastor what the true impact of atomic weapons can be.

What makes Hiroshima truly devastating is the tremendous difference between reading the facts and hearing of the heartbreak and devastation within everyday lives. Some of the most piercing stories told were not even the focus of the book, rather the people who these six hibakusha came into contact with during and after the bombing:

A diocesan secretary standing in the window of a mission house looking out over the destruction and weeping, then later running back into the fire; “Leave me here to die.”

The image of a woman with her breast sheared off, a man with a burned face, and a woman with a badly broken leg sharing a corrugated iron lean-to as black rain begins to fall on the city.

Reverend Tanimoto reminding himself that the bodies he rescues from the river, burned so badly that their skin comes off with his every attempt, are human beings.

But it is also a story of hope, as the victims of the first atomic bombing labor tirelessly to rebuild their lives, learn to heal and serve each other, and travel across the world sharing their stories with others to ensure that such suffering never occurs again.

The Top Ten Things You Should Know About Nuclear Weapons

Image from the National Federation of American Scientists

1. Three atomic weapons existed in the world in 1945.

2. In 1986, nearly 70,000 nuclear weapons existed.

3. As of April 2009, there are more than 23,300 still in existence, including more than 8,190 operational warheads and around 2,200 U.S. and Russian warheads ready for use on short notice. 90% of all nuclear bombs are owned by two countries, the United States and Russia.

4. The Manhattan Project was conducted during World War II, primarily by the United States, to develop the first atomic bomb. Technology developed in this project was used to create the bombs dropped on Japan.

5. Three scientists at separate Manhattan Project major research sites came independently to the conclusion that the atomic bomb should not be used on civilians as there was no defense for it. They advocated for its use as demonstration only.

6. The Manhattan Project's technology is now readily available to almost anyone who has a personal computer.

7. The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 were between 10 and 20 kilotons (one kiloton is the power of one thousand tons of TNT).

8. Immediate effects of a nuclear bomb include blast and thermal radiation. Delayed effects are produced by ionizing radiation, neutrons and radioactive fallout.

9. The first resolution of the United Nations, in January 1946, was to eliminate nuclear weapons.

10. The 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty, ratified by nearly every country in the world, requires the nuclear weapons states to engage in good faith negotiations for nuclear disarmament. This treaty was opened for signature on July 1, 1968, and today has 190 Parties, including the permanent members of the UN Security Council.


Sources
http://www.state.gov/t/isn/npt/index.htm
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/R40439.pdf
http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/nuclearweapons/nukestatus.html
http://sliceofmit.wordpress.com/