Annual commemoration of the Atom Bombing of Hiroshima

Annual commemoration of the atom bombing of Hiroshima

Monday, August 6, 2012 at 7 p.m. Hillcrest Promenade Park.

The annual commemoration of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945 will occur on Monday, August 6, beginning at 7 p.m. on the Promenade, just east of Hillcrest on Kavanagh Avenue. The event will feature historical comment, readings, prayer, poetry and music. The event is open to the public.

Each year the Arkansas Coalition for Peace & Justice (ACPJ) and the Arkansas Chapter of WAND – Women’s Action for New Directions, organize this observance as a means of remembering the horror of this bombing. More than 100,000 men, women and children died that day as a result of this single bomb. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, the United States dropped a second atom bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, which resulted in another 60,000 deaths. America has embraced nuclear weapons as the cornerstone of national security ever since.

An annual observance serves as an act of atonement, or perhaps it affords a moment of accountability, or both.