On the 80th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, We Will Join the Last Witnesses to Carry Forward Their Urgent Plea for a Nuclear Weapons Free World… “Never Again”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, August 1, 2025
Media Contacts:
Marylia Kelley and Scott Yundt, Tri-Valley CAREs, Livermore, CA; cell, 925-255-3589, [email protected], [email protected]
Grace Morizawa, Asian Americans for Peace and Justice, East Bay; cell, 510-289-1285, [email protected]
Dr. Bob Gould, SF Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility; 415-408-8806, [email protected]
WHAT: “80 Years of Nuclear Devastation: Remember Our History, Reshape Our Future” features a rally, symbolic die-in, and Japanese Bon Dance, with an opportunity for those who choose to peaceably risk arrest at the end of the program. The event will be held in front of the West Gate at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab. The 80th anniversary rally highlights include a nuclear engineer (PhD., UC Berkeley) on the U.S. decision to use atomic weapons, a Methodist minister’s reflections on the Japanese experience, and a nuclear analyst’s connections between the first atomic bomb used in war and the urgent nuclear challenges of today (bios follow).
WHEN: Hiroshima Day, Wednesday, August 6, 2025 at 9am (90-minute program)
WHERE: At the West Gate of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, located on Vasco Road and West Gate Drive in Livermore, CA.
WHY: On this historic 80th anniversary, speakers and participants will join the cry of the Hibakusha, “Never Again,” and honor their lifelong commitment to the elimination of nuclear weapons. We will do this at the West Gate of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where new nuclear weapons are being developed today for potential use tomorrow.
The Livermore commemoration will honor “Nihon Hidankyo,” the association of Japanese A-bomb survivors and recipient of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. At age 93, Terumi Tanaka noted, “I am one of the last witnesses,” adding his fervent hope the next generation will carry the work forward. “Nuclear disarmament is something that must be continued, no matter what,” he told reporters recently at the United Nations.
Underscoring the words of the Hibakusha, this year the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set its iconic Doomsday Clock at 89 seconds to midnight, marking the closest it has ever been in its 78-year history. “This historic adjustment underscores the alarming trajectory of global risks and highlights the urgent need for immediate, collective action to avert catastrophe,” noted the BAS board. Also, this year, the U.S. Conference of Mayors adopted a resolution titled, “Urging the United States to Lead the World Back From the Brink of Nuclear War and Halt and Reverse the Nuclear Arms Race.”
“I feel keenly the responsibility to ‘pick up the torch’ being passed to us by the Japanese survivors of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” said Tri-Valley CAREs senior advisor, Marylia Kelley. “Being at Livermore Lab with other peace advocates on August 6 is part of my commitment to ensure the world never forgets the human devastation of nuclear weapons and the imperative for their abolition.”
“We as a nation are at a pivot point,” said Livermore resident and Tri-Valley CAREs executive director, Scott Yundt. “The Trump administration’s recent budget contains a 58-percent increase in “Nuclear Weapons Activities,” according to Dept. of Energy (DOE) documents. Likewise, the DOE budget for Livermore Lab is rising to nearly $3 billion, 89.5% of which is solely for one budget line, “Nuclear Weapons Activities.” Yundt continued, “This moves the U.S. and world further away from the vision of the Hibakusha – and toward repeating the sin of using nuclear weapons, only now with weapons of vastly greater sophistication – and up to hundreds of times the explosive power of those first A-bombs. We must step back from the abyss while we still can. The August 6 commemoration at Livermore Lab is one such step.”
Bios for event speakers
• Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, holds a Ph.D. in engineering (specialization: nuclear fusion) from the University of California at Berkeley. He written extensively on nuclear weapons, nuclear power, and renewable energy issues, including on the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He is the principal editor of Nuclear Wastelands (MIT Press, 1995 and 2000), which documents the global pollution and waste created by nuclear weapons production.
• Marylia Kelley co-founded Tri-Valley CAREs in Livermore, CA in 1983. She is executive director emeritus, and currently serves as the group’s senior advisor. Ms. Kelley brings more than 40 years of research, writing and facilitating public participation in nuclear weapons policy decisions, with a focus on the Department of Energy, its National Nuclear Security Administration and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She has testified before the U.S. Congress, the California Legislature and the National Academy of Sciences.
• Rev. Michael Yoshii is Pastor Emeritus at Buena Vista United Methodist Church in Alameda where he served for 32 years before retiring in 2020. During his ministry he was involved with social action in community issues regarding racial equity, affordable housing, renters’ rights, LGBTQ+ inclusiveness, and immigrant rights. Rev. Yoshii is currently Co-Chair of the Friends of Wadi Foquin (FWF), a partnership with a Palestinian Muslim village in the West Bank. His oral history interview titled “Faith in the Face of Injustice” is at the UC Berkeley Oral History Project at the Bancroft Library.
• Rev. Monica Cross is a Quad Chair of the California Poor People’s Campaign and a member of the Prophetic Council of the Poor People’s Campaign. She serves as Pastor at First Christian Church of Oakland in Oakland, CA, Associate Minister at Tapestry Ministries, Disciples of Christ, Christian Church in Berkeley, CA, and Director of Women’s Ministries, Housing and Education in the Christian Church Disciples of Christ in Northern California and Nevada. She is the author of two books, including “Authenticity and Imagination in the Face of Oppression.”
• Patricia Ellsberg will deliver the rally’s “Call to Action.” She is a social change activist, mediation teacher, life coach and public speaker. In 1971, she helped her husband, Daniel Ellsberg, release to the press the Pentagon Papers, a top secret history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, which helped end the Vietnam War.
• Helen Jaccard was the Project Manager of the Veterans For Peace (VFP) Golden Rule anti-nuclear sailboat for ten years. She is a founding member of the VFP Nuclear Abolition Working Group and a member of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Helen researches, writes and speaks about the health and environmental impacts of the uranium pathway from mining, processing, weapons, energy, depleted uranium and disposal.
• Chizu Hamada will explain the significance of the Japanese Bon Dance to our event – and lead the rally participants in performing the dance in front of the Livermore Lab West Gate. She is a retired business owner and serves as a spokesperson for the No Nukes Action Committee, a group of Japanese citizens and Japanese Americans who came together after the earthquake, tsunami and meltdowns at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
• Wilson Riles, Jr and Patricia St. Onge will emcee the rally. Wilson is a politician and community activist who served on the Oakland City Council from 1979 to 1992. He is on the board of the Western States Legal Foundation. Patricia is a Six Nations/Haudenosaune and Quebecois and a partner in Seven Generations Consulting. She will offer the land blessing.
Note for journalists:
A limited number of advance interviews are available with speakers and/or event organizers. Email [email protected] or any of the contacts listed at the top of the advisory.
Event flyer, simulcast link, and more information can be found at www.trivalleycares.org
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