Updated! Hiroshima and Nagasaki Day events in Canada 2023
Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston, Collingwood, Toronto, London, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Vancouver, New Westminster, Victoria, Duncan, Nanaimo
Every year peace groups organize events in cities and communities around the word to remember the horrific atomic bombing by the United States of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, on August 6 and August 9, 1945.
The events typically include guest speakers, music, and lantern ceremonies where paper, hand-made lanterns are floated on ponds.
Here is a list of events being held across Canada.
(To add an event to the list, email sstaples@peacequest.ca)
Halifax
Montréal
Cérémonie de la paix à la mémoire de Hiroshima
5 août 2023 à 19 heures
Jardin japonais du Jardin botanique de Montréal
4101, rue Sherbrooke Est
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdf8CotHNP4yWNe-M6bXVIggSE1nsdll3vKoMU_IgMPPtvzfg/viewform
Ottawa
Kingston
Collingwood
Pivot2Peace (S. Geo. Bay Chapter WBW) will be marking
this horrible anniversary at Friendship Gardens in Collingwood,
ON (on Minnesota St. just north of the police station) August 9th,
1:30 - 2:30 p.m. The Friendship Gardens is dedicated to the sister
city relationship between Collingwood, ON and Katano, Japan.
Toronto
London/St. Thomas
Winnipeg
Winnipeg Lanterns for Peace 2023
On Wednesday, August 9, 2022, Winnipeggers will hold a Lanterns for Peace Ceremony to mark the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These ceremonies are conducted each year to help keep alive the memory of these attacks so that current generations understand we must never allow nuclear weapons to be used again.
This year, our focus is on the need for Canada to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, adopted by the UN July 7, 2017. Winnipeg is now one of 19 Canadian cities to support the treaty. Thus far, 92 countries have signed the treaty; Canada's federal government refuses to support it.
Keynote speakers are Junko Bailey of the Japanese Cultural Association of Manitoba and the Hon. Kevin Klein, Manitoba Minister of Environment and Climate.
Date: Wednesday, August 9, 2022
Time: 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM
Place: at the fountain on the south side of the Manitoba Legislative Building, 450 Broadway in Winnipeg
Schedule
7:30 to 8:30 - participants paint and assemble lanterns
8:30 to 9:30 - short speeches
9:30: lanterns are lit and launched in the fountain as the sun begins to set.
Sponsors: Peace Alliance Winnipeg, Japanese Cultural Association of Manitoba, Winnipeg Quaker Meeting
Media Contacts
Junko Bailey: (204) 333-2338
Glenn Michalchuk: (204) 479-7026
Saskatoon
Calgary
Vancouver
Join us in Vancouver on Aug. 6 - 7:30 PM to stand for peace and against all nuclear weapons by remembering the hundreds of thousands who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We will walk over to the Kinuko Laskey sculpture to hear speakers. Speakers from WILPF Canada and the Article 9 Committee, others welcome.
Flame of Peace
• 1620 Chestnut Street, Vancouver Google Maps link
The Flame of Peace in Seaforth Park at the junction of Burrard Street and Cornwall on the south side of the Burrard Street bridge, is a symbol of Vancouver's commitment to World Peace.
New Westminster
SUNDAY, AUGUST 6, 2023 AT 5 PM – 6:45 PM EDT
No nukes!
Hyack Square, New Westminster
Honour the victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No more Hiroshimas! No more Nagasakis! No more nuclear weapons! Militarization is increasing around the world as the US-led camp rejects negotiations, persisting in the destruction of Ukraine in its proxy war against Russia. Russia is augmenting its firepower and strategy, after winning the support of Eastern Ukraine regions' people, and is set to dominate all Ukraine. With the Ukraine state unrelenting but struggling to manage even with money and arms from NATO countries, both big powers are preparing to use nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the US and its military alliance, NATO, continues to expand in all continents, setting the stage for a war with China, possibly with nuclear weapons, which would truly result in the end of all human civilization. Stop war profiteering! End the war weapons industry!
Victoria
SUNDAY, AUGUST 6, 2023 AT 10 PM EDT
Honouring Peace: Hiroshima Nagasaki Day
Esquimalt Gorge Park
Honouring Peace is a free, family friendly event that will be held outdoors at the beautiful Japanese-style Gorge Park Pavilion, on the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in1945. Each year, peace is celebrated and its importance remembered through music, poetry, dance and drumming that moves and inspires us.
Lantern-making will begin at 7:00 pm on the outdoor porch of the Pavilion (all materials provided), and an educational display will be available indoors.
The program will begin at 7:30 pm and end with the launching of the lanterns in the Pavilion reflecting pools at 9 pm. Among the performers and presenters are:
First Nation’s greetings, Elder Bear Sam
Tsugio Kurushima, Nikkei Society
Furusato Dancers
Uminari Taiko Drummers
Hanne Fair, flute
Raging Grannies
Gettin' Higher Choir
Margaret Krawciw: "Children of the A-Bomb"
Please bring lawn chairs or a blanket if you can; for others, seating will be provided. A donation bottle will be passed for those who would like to contribute to the cost of the event.
Duncan
Our Freedom from War Coalition will be holding an information picket event at Charles Hoey Park in downtown Duncan starting at 11 am on Sunday August 6th to mark the day the US dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
It is vital we never allow this act of brutality to go unacknowledged.
In Aug. 6, 1945, during World War II, the U.S. B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb code-named "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan, resulting in an estimated 140,000 deaths. (Three days later, the United States exploded a nuclear device over Nagasaki; five days after that, Imperial Japan surrendered.) Canada was not absent on that day, but unfortunately was part of that travesty and genocide. Munitions Minister C.D. Howe - after the bomb was dropped - bragged Canadian scientists and Canadian institutions had played a crucial role. Howe sat on a joint committee which authorized the use of the bombs . Uranium was mined by the Dene people near Great Slave lake, hundreds died of cancer from the work. Canada never warned the indigenous Dene of the danger with such unprotected exposure to uranium. In other words – the hands of the ruling class in Canada are dripping with the blood of Japanese civilians. Canada stood with the US war machine and without protest committed this atrocity which we all know now was an unnecessary step in securing Japanese surrender. " It is fortunate the use of the bomb should have been upon the Japanese rather than upon the white races of Europe” - William Lyon Mackenzie King (Canadian Prime Minister) quote. We will set up next to the train station. Please join in – we could especially use some help making origami cranes. You are all welcome to participate in this critical remembrance.
oger Crowther
roger_crowther@hotmail.com or 250-510-9460
Eden Haythornthwaite
haythornthwaite@shaw.ca or 250-709-7975
Nanaimo
Lanterns for Peace Ceremony on August 6th at 9 pm at Sway-a-lana lagoon on Nanaimo's waterfront: music, speakers and lanterns launched at dusk. This will be the 22nd annual ceremony hosted by WILPF Nanaimo. Info: 250 753 3015