HOLYOKE — Calls for peace often conjure images of protests, marches and organized movements. While that’s certainly part of the push for harmony, for Jade Lu, the path to a less violent world begins with how you talk to yourself during the morning rush.
“Nonviolence is also a way of life. From moment to moment, the way you live your life and how you talk to yourself in the morning while you’re running around,” said Lu, the graduate student of Buddhism at the Harvard Divinity School. “Live your life with a little more gentleness. I think that’s a good place to start.”
Lu made her way from Boston to western Massachusetts on Thursday, where she accompanied members of Leverett’s New England Peace Pagoda on a walk across the region to mark the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
After a vigil on the Greenfield Common early in the morning, the contingent drove to Holyoke for a similar ceremony before setting off on foot for a peace walk to Chicopee and Springfield. The day concluded in the late afternoon with a closing event at Mont Marie Cemetery Gardens in Holyoke.
For those who gathered Thursday for the daylong event, the vigils were as much an act of remembrance for the lives lost eight decades ago as they were a renewed call to prevent nuclear weapons from ever being used again.
On Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the two Japanese cities, killing more than 200,000 people by the end of that year through the blasts and radiation exposure. While the bombings hastened Japan’s surrender and the end of World War II, they also ushered in the nuclear age and continue to fuel global calls for nuclear disarmament and peace.
In Greenfield, a moment of silence was held at 8:15 a.m. to commemorate the exact time the atomic bomb known as “Little Boy” was dropped from the Enola Gay B-29 Superfortress over Hiroshima, killing an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 people instantly or within hours.
As the ceremony concluded, Shelburne Falls resident Sarah Pirtle played the flute, and participants shared concerns and plans for future peace actions.
“I think it’s the most important topic on Earth,” Cummington resident Dr. Eli Martin Schotz, who sits on the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice’s board of directors, said in an interview earlier this week. “I think the future of our species hinges on our ability, ultimately, to end war.” The Traprock Center was one of the sponsors of Thursday’s event in Greenfield.
During the morning stop in Holyoke, a string of cranes — a Japanese symbol of happiness and a long life that is made for marriages and births — was given to Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia. As Sister Clare Carter of the New England Peace Pagoda handed the origami symbol to the mayor on the front steps of City Hall, she shared a story about its significance.
After the bombing of Hiroshima, 2-year-old Sadako Sasaki survived. A decade later, she was diagnosed with leukemia, an illness widely linked to radiation exposure from the bombing. While hospitalized, Sadako set out to fold 1,000 paper cranes, inspired by the Japanese tradition that anyone who folds 1,000 origami cranes will be granted a wish. Her wish was for peace and good health for children around the world.
She died before reaching her goal, completing 664 cranes, Carter said. Others later finished the remaining cranes in her honor.
Carter said Sadako’s story represents “the power of one young teenager wholeheartedly waiting for a better world.”
Before the group continued into Chicopee, Brother Gyoway Kato of the Peace Pagoda spoke about the importance of continuing to advocate against war. The Japanese-born monk was 5 years old when the atomic bombs were dropped. Although he was not close enough to the blasts to remember them, he said the bombings shaped his life’s work.
Kato said he became deeply committed to the anti-war movement in 1954, when the United States conducted nuclear weapons tests in the South Pacific. Decades of public opposition to nuclear weapons have helped prevent their use since 1945, but he warned that continued advocacy is necessary to keep governments from resorting to them again.
“It’s a more dangerous situation today,” Kato said. “We have to keep doing this.”
Supporters of nuclear disarmament said the threat of nuclear conflict remains a growing concern and warned that, without sustained grassroots efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons, another tragedy like Hiroshima or Nagasaki remains possible.
They pointed to several recent developments as reasons for concern, including the expiration of the New START Treaty in February and provisions in the Senate’s National Defense Authorization Act that would support the development of tactical nuclear weapons.
Participants also cited rising tensions with Iran and concerns that a U.S. nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia could contribute to further nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.
On the state level, advocates pointed to recent action by the Massachusetts Senate as a step toward reducing the threat. The Senate passed S.1649, known as the “Back from the Brink” resolution, calling for efforts to curb and ultimately reverse the nuclear arms race.
