San Francisco, CA, USA, Aug. 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be commemorated on August 6, and 9, 2020 by four of the world’s leading interfaith/intercultural organizations with a call for the abolition of all nuclear weapons.
The appeal will be part of an hour-long online video presentation with supporting statements from former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev, former US Secretary of State George Shultz, and other prominent voices. It will be held on August 6 and 9.
“On August 5, 1945 – the day before the atomic bombing – the people of Hiroshima had no idea of the cataclysmic disaster that awaited them. On August 6, 2020, the people of the world have little idea of the thermonuclear disaster that is aimed at them,” said Bishop William Swing, retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California.
Swing, founder of United Religions Initiative (URI), (with The Rev. Victor H. Kazanjian, Jr., Executive Director), has joined the leaders of the Charter of Compassion, (Marilyn Turkovich, Executive Director); the Parliament of the World’s Religions (Audrey Kitagawa, Chair); and Religions for Peace, (Azza Karam, Executive Director) in jointly issuing the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Accord statement.
“It is a measure of the urgency we all feel that this is the first time the organizations have joined together to make a common statement,” Swing said. “Our hope is that this statement will help to awaken the world to the trigger-ready threats posed by these weapons and to spur a global movement for a nuclear-free world.”
“At a time when peoples’ health should be first and foremost, billions of dollars are being invested in modernizing nuclear weapons and digitalizing the battlefield with unknown consequences, while agreements that stabilized nuclear dangers are being torn up,” Swing said. “The world is at a quiet, ultimately consequential, crossroads concerning nuclear weapons. More hands are poised over nuclear ’buttons,’ and the nuclear armed counties have decided to move rapidly in the direction of raising, rather than lowering, the nuclear threat to the world."
“Not one nuclear weapons country has leadership calling for a change in direction. Therefore, for the sake of security of the world community, citizens have to stand up. That is why we have organized this initiative,” said Swing.
Other speakers commemorating the August 6 and August 9 atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki include:
Kazumi Matsui, Mayor of Hiroshima; Tomihisa Taue, Mayor of Nagasaki; former US Senator Sam Nunn; Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Nobel Laureate; Lassina Zerbo, head of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO); Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN); Leona Morgan, Coordinator with the Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium mining; and Kehkashan Basu, founder and president of Green Hope Foundation.
Both former President Gorbachev and Secretary Shultz will be honored for their efforts that brought the world tantalizingly close to the total elimination of nuclear weapons at the 1986 Summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. An award to young people pursuing nuclear disarmament is being established in perpetuity in their names.
The Hiroshima/Nagasaki commemoration will be streamed online globally, across various time zones on Facebook, YouTube and other platforms. Visit www.voices-uri.org.
After you register, you will receive links to all the platforms where it will be streaming.
Broadcast Times:
Thursday, August 6, 2020
5AM PDT San Francisco | 8AM EDT New York | 2PM UK | 5:30PM Delhi | 9PM Japan
12PM PDT San Francisco | 3PM EDT New York | 6PM UK | 9:30PM Delhi | 4AM Japan
5PM PDT San Francisco | 8PM EDT New York | 2AM UK | 5:30AM Delhi | 9AM Japan
Saturday, August 8, 2020
5PM PDT San Francisco | 8PM EDT New York | 2AM UK | 5:30AM Delhi | 9AM Japan
Sunday, August 9, 2020
12PM PDT San Francisco | 3PM EDT New York | 6PM UK | 9:30PM Delhi | 4AM Japan
Register for this free event here: https://www.voices-uri.org/registration
Endorsers of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Accord include:
- Council for a Livable World; Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation – John Tierney, Executive Director
- Global Security Institute – Jonathan Granoff, President
- Lightbridge Corporation – Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr., Chairman Mayors for Peace
- Disarmament and Security Centre – New Zealand – Dr. Kate Dewes ONZM
- International Peace Bureau – Lisa Clark, Co-President
- Ploughshares Fund - Joe Cirincione, President
- Nuclear Watch New Mexico – Jay Coghlan, Executive Director
- Peace Action – Paul Kawika Martin, Senior Director, Policy and Political Affairs
- Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary – Karenna Gore Founder and Director American Renewable Energy Institute – Chip Comins Chairman and CEO
- Atomic Reporters – Peter Rickwood, Founder
- Earth Day Network: México – Tiahoga Ruge, Regional Director
- World Beyond War – David Swanson Journalist, and Antiwar Activist
- NSquare – Erika Gregory, Managing Director
- Interfaith Power and Light – Rev. Susan Hendershot, President Union for Reform Judaism
- Chishty Foundation – Haji Syed Salman Chishty, Chairman
- Sufi Ruhaniat International – Pir Shabda Kahn
- Tri-Faith Initiative – Wendy Goldberg, Executive Director
- International Youth Alliance for Peace – Thirukumar Premakumar, Founder and President, Sri Lanka
- Veterans for Peace Golden Rule Project – Helen Jaccard, Executive Director
- May Peace Prevail on Earth International – Fumi Johns Stewart, Executive Director
- The Shift Network – Philip M. Hellmich, Global Peace Ambassador
- Goi Peace Foundation – Hiroo Saionji, President, Masami Miyazaki, Executive Director
- Project Ploughshares – Cesar Jaramillo, Executive Director
- Heiwa Peace and Reconciliation Foundation of New York – Rev. Dr. TK Nakagaki, President and Founder, Hiroshima Peace Ambassador, Nagasaki Peace Correspondent
- Church Council of Greater Seattle – John Ramos, Executive Director
- Global Consciousness Project – Dr. Roger Nelson, Director
- Tanenbaum – Rev. Mark E. Fowler, CEO
- Middle Powers Initiative – Tarja Cronberg, Chair
- Friends Committee on National Legislation – Diane Randall, General Secretary
- One Billion Youth for Peace – Abraham Karickam, Founder
- Green Hope Foundation – Kehkashan Basu Founder, and President
- Unity Earth – Ben Bowler, Executive Director
- Living Peace Projects – Brigitte van Baren Chair, Co-Founder
- The Global Sunrise Project – Kasha and Marla Slavner
- One Life Alliance – Kia Scherr, President
- MasterPeace – Aart Bos, CEO
- A Common Word Among the Youth (ACWAY) – Rawaad Mahyub, Executive Director
- Pathways to Peace (PTP) – Tezikiah Gabriel, Executive Director
- Soka Gakkai International
- Committee of Religious NGOs at the UN – Hiro Sakurai, President
- Sérgio Duarte – Ambassador, President of Pugwash
- Bruce Knotts – President and CEO: NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security; and Director of the Unitarian Universalist Office at the United Nations
- Daryl G. Kimball – Executive Director, Arms Control Association
- Bruce Blair – Co- founder, Global Zero
- Ken Kimmell – President, Union of Concerned Scientists
- Lieutenant-General (ret) the Honourable Roméo Dallaire
- Dr. Mary-Wynne Ashford – International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Winner 1985 Noble Peace Prize
- Dr. Hans Blix – former Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
- Michael Krepon – Co-Founder and Distinguished Fellow The Stimson Center
- Richard Rhodes – Pulitzer Prize-winning historian
- Kathleen Kennedy Townsend – former Lieutenant Governor of the State of Maryland
- Pierce Corden – Expert Advisor, Holy See Mission to the United Nations in New York, and former US arms control official
- David T. Ives – Executive Director Emeritus, The Albert Schweitzer Institute, and Senior Advisor for the Summits of Nobel Peace Laureates
- Alyn Ware – Director, World Future Council, Peace & Disarmament Program
- Dr. Kim Phuc PHAN THI – UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, Founder Kim Foundation International
- Joan Brown Campbell, Rev. Dr. – General Secretary, National Council of Churches of Christ (ret.) and Former Director, Department of Religion, Chautauqua Institution
- His Holiness Tep Vong, The Great Supreme Patriarch of the Kingdom of Cambodia
- His Holiness Chamgon Kenting Tai Situpa
- Bhai Sahib, Bhai Mohinder Singh Ahluwalia OBE KSG – Chairman of Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha and the Nishkam Group of Charitable Organizations
- The Rev. Canon Sally G. Bingham – President Emerita, The Regeneration Project, Interfaith Power and Light
- Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr. – Four World’s International Institute
- Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq – Shaman and Healer, Greenland
- Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji – Spiritual Leader, and President of Parmarth Niketan Ashram, Rishikesh, India
- Rev. Drew Christiansen, S. J. – Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Global Human Development
- Senior Research Fellow, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs Georgetown University
- Swamini Adityananda Saraswati – Spiritual Leader, and Co-Founder of Pan African Association Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswatiji – Spiritual Leader and Secretary General of The Global Interfaith WASH Alliance
- Mohanji – Humanitarian and Philanthropist, Founder of the Mohanji Foundation
- Dharma master Hsin Tao – Founder Museum of World Religions
- Rabbi David Rosen KSG, CBE – International Co-President of Religions for Peace
- Rev. Kosho Niwano – President-Designate, Rissho Kosei Kai, Co-Moderator Religions for Peace Bishop Rubén Tierrablanca González – ofm Apostolic Vicar of Instanbul – Latin Catholic Church James Carroll – Author, Historian, Journalist
- Cynthia Lazaroff – Founder, NuclearWakeUpCall.Earth
- Dr. Karen Hallberg – Professor of Physics at Balseiro Institute, and Research Director Centro Atómico Bariloche
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