Faith groups around the world are preparing to host prayer events to mark the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
“Nuclear Prayer Day” on Aug. 6 and the “Global Days of Prayer and Action” on Aug. 9 are intended to refocus international attention on the ongoing threat of nuclear war, according to organizer Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons, an outreach of the United Religions Initiative.
Monica Willard
“Prayer and action belong together,” said Monica Willard, Nuclear Prayer Day global chair. “People of faith have a unique responsibility to raise a moral and spiritual voice against weapons that threaten all life on Earth.”
Because the Aug. 9 anniversary of Nagasaki’s bombing falls on a Sunday this year, congregations are urged to incorporate nuclear abolition into worship services and youth programming and to consider holding interfaith vigils, moments of silence and bell ringing to mark the bombings.
“Invite congregants to reflect on the spiritual and moral dimensions of peacebuilding” and “encourage advocacy and public action for nuclear disarmament,” the group advises.
Online observances also are planned. The Hiroshima members of May Peace Prevail On Earth International have scheduled a livestreamed broadcast from the city’s Peace Park commemorating the 1945 attack: “The Global Silent Minute will be observed to mark the exact moment the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima as we join the citizens of Japan who stop for one minute of silence to offer prayers for everlasting peace and a world without nuclear weapons.”
According to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the uranium bomb detonated above Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, yielded the equivalent of 15,000 tons of TNT and killed an estimated 140,000 people and incinerated about 70% of all structures in the city. The plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later was slightly larger and killed 70,000 people.
Today, the risk of nuclear warfare is higher than ever, the organization reports. “Even before the war in Ukraine began, the U.N. was warning that ‘the risk that nuclear weapons will be used is higher now than at any point since the duck-and-cover drills and fallout shelters of the Cold War.’ Analysts for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists calculated that a child born today is unlikely to live out their natural lives without seeing nuclear devastation.”
Nuclear weapons treaties have proved to be effective but must continue to be pursued, the group says.
“Nuclear Prayer Day” and “Global Days of Prayer and Action” can help in the pushback against the proliferation and use of nukes, Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice said in promoting its observance of the prayer observances.
“Remembering the unspeakable death and devastation inflicted upon Hiroshima on Aug. 6 and Nagasaki on Aug. 9 in 1945, we stand together to declare: nuclear weapons must never be used again — and they must be eliminated entirely,” the group said. “Not only their use, but their testing, production, modernization, stockpiling and possession must end. The continued existence of nuclear weapons — whether deployed, stored or tested — places all life at risk. We refuse to accept a world held hostage to annihilation.”