By Kristin Scheer
On a warm August evening, about 40 of us gathered at the Loose Park pond to remember the lives lost and forever changed by the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 79 years ago.
Kimmy Igla of the PeaceWorks KC Board was our emcee. She introduced Ted John of Veterans for Peace and Jason Swartley of the Kansas City Indian Center. Ted John rang his bell 11 times, telling us that a bell rang 11 times to signify the end of fighting in World War I. “Every time I ring this bell,” he said, “it is my prayer that we cease fighting.” Then Jason Swartley of the Sioux tribe of Nebraska drummed and sang a traditional Indigenous song. “We have suffered trauma,” he said. “This is a song for healing.” Ted John joined Jason in song, and I felt the heart and blessing they shared.
Then we heard from Hiroko Komiya, principal of the Kansas City Japanese School. She said, “We remember victims of the bombs dropped on August 6th and 9th in 1945, and we commit ourselves to work for peace!” She then told us of her childhood friend, Yuko, who whispered in her ear that she would not be getting married. Her mother had been in Hiroshima and had leukemia. Yuko, at 10 years old, told Hiroko, “I will get it someday because I am her child. And my children will get it too. We have bad blood.”
Hiroko said, “The immediate death of over 200,000 was sadly just the beginning. Generational trauma, the spread of cancer, and other illnesses continue to bring death.” We learned that another 5,320 names had been added to the Hibakusha Death List, raising that total to 339,227 as of last August. “For the sake of this skinny little girl, my best friend, Yuko, for all the victims, and for the sake of our children and future generations, I protest the production of nuclear weapons!”
We then heard from Analisa Colom-Todd about her family’s suffering from World War II and about the Japanese art of flower arranging (https://peaceworkskc.org/ikebana-artist-speaks-at-peace-event-8-4/). “Come to the Japanese festival on Saturday, October 5th.” Analisa invited us. “You will see our Ikebana creations and much more Japanese culture right here in the KC area,” at Johnson County Community College.
Kimmy Igla then shared some poetry excerpts from In the Shadow of the Bomb, Poems of Survival by David Krieger, with notes by Bill Bhanaja. Here is some of what Kimmy shared:
When the Bomb became our God
We loved it far too much,
Worshipping no other gods before it.
When the bomb became our god
We lived in a constant state of war
That we called peace.
“Of those two August mornings when the Atomic Bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the poet recalls the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower, ‘It wasn’t necessary to hit them with those awful things.’”
“This highlights our over-funded military is nothing but a dramatic display of brutal force.”
Kimmy concluded, “We must recognize how ongoing imperialism has shaped the way of life that we live and how we as a society consume the earth’s resources. There must be a change in our understanding to change how we shape the world we live in. … Nuclear colonization is happening NOW! Toxic uranium is being mined from the earth and illegally driven through Indigenous lands—contaminating the area and causing intergenerational diseases.
“We take tonight to remember that the US government is responsible for one of the greatest crimes against humanity, the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and we also recognize that our government is currently committing illegal acts against Indigenous people on this land and across the globe!”
We also heard from spoken word artist and nuclear resister Sahj Kaya, who was powerful and inspired. She invited us to create a new government as the Constitution instructs us to do. “When any government becomes destructive such that human rights are not secured or protected, it is our right, indeed our duty to alter or abolish it and create a new government that does (protect human rights). … Not by storming buildings, killing, stealing, destroying with man-made fatal tinker toys!” Sahj Kaya declared. “Change comes by educating humans about what their rights are!” Her speech was fiery and her delivery ferocious!
We then took a few minutes to share with one another about why we came out to the gathering. Person to person, it was inspiring to have so many lovely people gathered together, taking the time and effort in the August heat to commemorate this awful anniversary and call for something better.
Finally, Ann Suellentrop, antinuclear activist extraordinaire, informed us about some good works happening now and what we can do in support. See https://peaceworkskc.org/we-can-act-to-abolish-nuclear-weapons. Ann read her letter to the editor published in The Kansas City Star that day (https://peaceworkskc.org/remember-hiroshima-nagasaki-see-kc-star-letter/).
In addition, Ann read parts of her letter to The KC Star (parts not printed with the rest of her letter). Ann said that as a retired maternal-child nurse in Kansas City, “it is excruciating to watch the slaughter of babies and children in Gaza—to know my tax dollars are paying for these atrocities.”
Ann traveled to Japan in March of this year and had the opportunity to visit with hibakusha, survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. Ann concluded her talk Aug. 4 with words by Shige Moritaki—words shared on a handkerchief: “As we work to create a peaceful world without A- and H-bombs, let us never forget the victims of the atomic bombings.”
