WORCESTER – Nearly 40 local residents gathered on Sunday night at Worcester’s Peace Park, at the corner of Winslow Street and Pleasant Street, to read from testimonies from survivors of the Hiroshima bombing and hold a Japanese lantern ceremony honoring the bomb’s first victims.
Worcester was among a dozen towns across Massachusetts to hold a ceremony in memory of the 78th Anniversary of the bombing, which was organized by Massachusetts Peace Action. The Center for Nonviolent Solutions organized a ceremony in Worcester, in collaboration with the Saints Francis & Thérèse Catholic Worker.
State Rep. Mary Keefe, also spoke at the event while recounting her memories of the Winslow Street School, which previously sat at the Peace Park location. Other speakers focused on the impact of the atomic weapon testing nearly 80 years ago and how it relates to our present day.
Claire Schaeffer-Duffy, a founding member of the Saints Francis & Thérèse Catholic Worker and program director for the Center for Nonviolent Solutions, said:
“Here on the 78th anniversary of the US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, the world is closer to a nuclear catastrophe via war, or accident, than it ever has been. Putin has threatened use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. The US is deploying new nuclear weapons to Europe and US nuclear armed submarines are returning to South Korea. To remember those who died as a result of the Trinity test and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is to remember what these weapons actually represent – a generational destruction of life – and to commit ourselves to their abolition.”
On March 8, 2022, Worcester City Council voted by 5-4 to join the global call for the elimination of all nuclear weapons. Boston City Council passed a similar resolution in December 2021.
