Date/Time
Date(s) - August 03, 2024
7:00 pm-9:00 pm

Saturday, August 3, 2024, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Lovers Point Beach Cove, Ocean View Blvd., at 17^th Street, Pacific Grove, CA

With traditional taiko drumming, music, poetry, and stories, culminating in a lantern floating ceremony at dusk, this year’s Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration at Lovers Point Cove in Pacific Grove marks the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9).  The Monterey County Branch of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, (WILPF), honors those who perished in the atomic bombings and those who survived and are still with us.  The ceremony acknowledges the violence and the long-term consequences the bombing, and reaffirms our commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons so that such a tragedy is never repeated. This respectful, inclusive, and free event is open to the public. 

WILPF advocates for ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), the first international agreement to make nuclear weapons illegal. It is an explicit and comprehensive international law that went into force on January 22, 2021.  As of January 2024, 70 nation-states out of 193 United Nations member states have ratified or acceded to the treaty.  The United States has not yet signed or ratified the TPNW.   (Read more at UN Office for Disarmament Affairs – Treaty Database). 

Program:

Emcee:  Beverly Bean, Chair of WILPF Monterey County Branch

Guest Speaker:  Dr. Sharat G. Lin, medical physicist, is affiliated with Human Agenda and is a Board Advisor for the Initiative for Equality. He teaches, writes and lectures on global political economy, migrant labor, public health, environment, war and peace, and arts in social activism. Contact Sharat Lin at 408-915-9744 or sharatlin@hotmail.com

 

Program Schedule:

7:00 pm: Lantern making and performance of Monterey’s Taiko Drumming group, Shinsho-Mugen Daiko

7:45 pm: Music, poetry, and brief stories and messages of hope and peace:

Opening Blessing – Universalist Unitarian Reverend Elaine Gehrmann

Indigenous Land Acknowledgement – Michael Lojkovic, musician, actor, peace activist

Mayors for Peace –Bill Peake, Pacific Grove Mayor

Hiroshima Story –Troy Ishikawa, Interculturalist

Poem – Jennifer Fellguth, poet

Keynote Speech – Sharat G. Lin, medical physicist, global political economist,

Veterans For Peace Chapter 46 – Justin Loza, Chapter 46 Vice President

Singing – Wholehearted Community Chorus

Closing – Carole Erickson, WILPF, Monterey Peninsula Friends Meeting (Quakers)

 

8:15 pm: Launching of the peace lanterns.  Tai-Chi Master Jim Scott-Behrends will play meditative music on the Japanese bamboo shakuhachi flute while the peace lanterns are pulled serenely over the cove waters by kayakers.    

Event flyer:               Peace-Lantern-2024-flyer
Eventbrite Event:      www.facebook.com/events/2741973245950572
Facebook Event:      https://tinyurl.com/eventbrite-WILPF-Aug3-2024

 

Sponsored by Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Monterey County Branch

Co-sponsored by the City of Pacific Grove, the Peace Coalition of Monterey County, Monterey Peninsula Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Veterans For Peace – Chapter 46, the Monterey Peace and Justice Center, and Pacific Grove Adventures, Lovers Point, CA.

 

About Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Monterey County Branch:  WILPF is a worldwide organization established in 1915.  Our vision is a world of permanent peace built on feminist foundations of freedom, justice, nonviolence, human rights, and equality for all, where people, the planet, and all its other inhabitants coexist and flourish in harmony. The Monterey County Branch works collaboratively and in solidarity all across the WILPF movement, and in partnership with other individuals and organizations who align with our vision.

 

Email:  Beverly Bean, WILPF Chair, beverlygb@gmail.com
Website:       wilpf-monterey-county-branch
Facebook:     www.facebook.com/WILPFMonterey