[Peace] Hiroshima Day Events

[Charlotte Green]

Days of Remembrance

August 6 and 9, 2005 will mark the 60th anniversary of
the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. 
Eighteen faith organizations in Champaign-Urbana are
sponsoring “Days of Remembrance” to commemorate the
victims of the bombings and the many innocent people
who die and suffer as a result of war, as well as to
consider ways to work for a peaceful world.

The first event will be a lecture by professor
Frederick K. Lamb entitled, “Countering the Threat of
Nuclear Terrorism”.  The talk will take place on
Friday, August 5 at 7 PM at Loomis Laboratory of
Physics, Green and Goodwin, Urbana.  Parking will be
available at the Physics Building (except for 24 hour
spaces) and the Wesley Foundation.

Dr. Lamb is a professor of physics and astronomy at
the University of Illinois.  Since 1980, he has
devoted a substantial portion of his time to national
and international security.  In 1981, he helped create
the Illinois Alliance to Prevent Nuclear War.  He has
played a leadership role in the University of Illinois
Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and
International Security for more than two decades. 
Recently, Lamb spearheaded an evaluation by the
American Physical Society on Boost-Phase Intercept
Systems for National Missile Defense, whose purpose is
to defend the United States using interceptor rockets
or the airborne laser now being developed.  This
report provided input for reports on missile defense
by the General Accounting Office and Congressional
Budget Office in 2004.

The second event will feature educational activities
for children and adults and will culminate with the
floating of peace lanterns at West Side Park. 
Activities will begin at 6:30 PM on Tuesday, August 9
at the First United Methodist Church, 210 W. Church
St., Champaign with the showing of a thirty-minute
film, “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes”. 
Appropriate for ages eight and up, the film is the
true story of an eleven-year-old Japanese girl who
contracted leukemia as a result of exposure to
radiation from the atomic bomb when she was two. 
Following the film, there will be opportunities to
decorate the shades of the peace lanterns, make paper
cranes, write peace messages in Japanese, and write
peace haikus.  At dusk, participants will process from
the church to West Side Park where a ceremony
involving the floating of the peace lanterns will take
place.  Based on a Buddhist tradition, the luminaries
will be a way to remember the victims of the bombing
and to send forth prayers of peace.

Cosponsors of “Days of Remembrance” are McKinley
Presbyterian Church and Foundation; Channing-Murray
Foundation; Wesley United Methodist Church and
Foundation; First United Methodist Church, Champaign;
Urbana-Champaign Friends Meeting; First Mennonite
Church, Urbana; St. Patrick Catholic Church Social
Action Committee; St. Jude Catholic Worker House; St.
Mary Catholic Church; Central Illinois Mosque and
Islamic Center; St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church;
Unitarian Universalist Social Action Committee;
Illinois Disciples Foundation; Activist Forum of IDF;
Bah’i Center; Episcopal Church Foundation; Prairie
Sangha for Mindfulness Meditation; University YMCA.

Cosponsors for Dr. Lamb’s lecture also include the
Physics Department and Arms Control, Disarmament and
International Security (ACDIS) at the University of
Illinois.