Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group
PO Box 42456
Portland, OR 97242
(503) 236-3065
iraq@pjw.info    http://www.pjw.info/Iraq.html

Calendar item

For immediate release                                                             July 18, 2005

HIROSHIMA DAY ACTIONS BRING REMINDERS OF BOMB'S DEADLY EFFECTS
Groups to gather on Friday, August 5, 60 years later, at 4:30 PM, Pioneer Courthouse Square
(with earlier event at 12:00 Noon, Terry Schrunk Plaza, SW 3rd and Madison)

The campaign, known as the "Zones Project," was also used 10 years ago on the bombing's 50th anniversary, by the organization Peace and Justice Works (PJW), whose Iraq Affinity Group is cosponsoring the Friday evening event with PPRC.

On August 6 and 9, 1945, US warplanes dropped the only two nuclear bombs ever used by any country in the history of mankind in warfare on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Over 100,000, mostly civlians, died instantly with thousands more dying later of radiation sickness and cancer. The Zones Project points out other symptoms experienced by people depending on how close they were to ground zero. PJW's Iraq Affinity Group will remind the public that the bombs dropped in 1945 were miniscule compared to today's "payloads," and that the use of radioactive materials in Iraq, Afghanistan and former Yugoslavia are wreaking unknown amounts of disease and death both on the people of those countries and American soldiers. Depleted Uranium (DU) is thought to be one of the causes of "Gulf War Syndrome," as well as innumerable inexplicable cancers and birth defects seen in Iraq following the 1991 "Gulf War."

As the world debates the entry of North Korea and Iran into the "club" of countries with atomic weapons, these peace groups urge the US to set an example by ending all of its nuclear weapons programs.

The Friday event is being cosponsored with the Portland Peaceful Response Coalition, who have held a peace and justice rally every Friday at Pioneer Square since November, 2001 following the US invasion of Afghanistan. The early 4:30 PM start time is to allow for more people to participate and to share information with commuters prior to the march.

The Iraq Affinity Group is also cosponsoring a noon gathering on August 5, which will expand the Women in Black's weekly vigil at Terry Schrunk Plaza, SW 3rd and Madison, across from the Federal Building. That gathering will also hold a march to the Memorial Plaza, beginning at about 12:45, ending by 1:30 PM. Women in Black will provide signs for this event, whose theme will be "Unspeakable Grief."

Northwest Veterans for Peace are also cosponsoring both events.

[Other activities, including the shadow project and a 6 PM gathering at Terry Schrunk, are being organized by Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and other groups. See http://www.oregonpsr.org for information on those events.]

For more information on the Friday evening gathering and march, contact Peace and Justice Works at 503-236-3065, iraq@pjw.info or see http://www.pjw.info, or Portland Peaceful Response Coalition at (503) 344-5078, pprcnews@yahoo.com or see http://www.pprc- news.org.

For information on the Friday noontime gathering contact Yvonne Simmons at Women in Black, 503- 288-8958.