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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| August 9, 2003 |
New York City, United States – Nagasaki Day Peace Concert - Riverside Church |
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| Taiko drumming in the Riverside Church, New York, to begin the Ceremony for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament |
On the anniversary of the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki in 1945, Peace Boat participants and NGOs from the US and around the world gathered to hold a ceremony for peace and nuclear disarmament in Riverside Church, New York. The majestic and historical building was also the place where Martin Luther King made his famous anti-war speech, and was a fitting venue for the evening's events.
This ceremony and concert of remembrance for victims of Nagasaki and victims of all wars, and to say "never again," was organised in partnership by Peace Boat, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Educators for Social Responsibility Metro Area, SANITY (Students Against Nuclear Insanity for Tomorrows Youth), The Ribbon International and Urban Youth Collective. The event, an act of remembrance and solidarity, urged the total abolition of nuclear weapons, demanded that the Bush Administration abandon its new nuclear doctrine and sought to build links between Japanese and US civil society in working towards these goals.
The evening began with the reading of special messages of solidarity from the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Mayor of Nagasaki's message gave thanks for the holding of the ceremony and expressed the determination of the citizens of Nagasaki "to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons and a lasting world peace."
Promising to donate the profits of her CD to the Peace Boat, jazz singer, Ruthie Ristich, was first to perform for the audience packed into the huge church. Following her act was a pounding display of traditional Japanese taiko drumming by Batten-san, a Peace Boat participant from Kyushu. |
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| The powerful voice of Chude Mondlane from Mozambique |
Park Jeung En, one of the two South Korean activitists who co-authored the position paper on the Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone in Northeast Asia that had been delivered to the United Nations the day before, spoke of the importance of Japan wanting a nuclear free world, stressing that the world "needs strong voices to stop the policies of the US" and that, "all people can help bring peace to North East Asia."
Before the musical interlude of the beautiful singing of Pat Fernando from Sri Lanka, Peace Boat's Global University students stepped up to the stage to tell the audience about their learning experiences onboard the ship. "Once we know the facts we have to respond to them," said the students, emphasising the need for activism against the injustices of the world. |
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| The future of the world with young people from New York's "Urban Youth Collective" |
Despite the horrific events of 58 years ago, thousands of bombs continue to be dropped, "killing people indiscriminately like insects," lamented Hiroshima survivor Fumiko Amano, adding that August 9 was also the United Nations day for indigenous people, and that the audience should think of the human cost involved in the mining of uranium and its continuing use in munitions.
Following Fumiko's emotional plea for a world without nuclear weapons was Rita DiCarlo of the Oak Ridge "Stop the Bombs" campaign. The organization works to end nuclear weapons production at the last full-scale production plant in the US, and holds regular protests at the gates of the "Y-12" plant. The Y-12 facilities are currently upgrading the W87 warhead, which rides on the MX missile. One of these warheads has the destructive power of 100,000 Hiroshima bombs.
Performances from singers Chude Mondlane of Mozambique and Vandy Kanyako of Sierra Leone, the Urban Youth Collective and Peace Boat's drumming team Eisa gave a rousing finale to the end of an inspiring evening in the name of global peace. |
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