Atom Bomb Survivors open Hiroshima and Nagasaki Exhibition in Toronto City Hall

August 6, 2012

863-12.09 August 7, 2012 For Immediate Release:

Hiroshima atom bomb survivors Setsuko Thurlow and Joe Ohori will open a HIROSHIMA, NAGASAKI POSTER & SURVIVORS? ART EXHIBIT at the Toronto City Hall Rotunda, 100 Queen Street West, Wednesday, August 8, at 9 am. Both survivors will be available for media interviews at that time. The exhibit runs Wednesday, August 8 to Saturday, August 11.

Setsuko Thurlow and Joe Ohori were only children when the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The two survivors will also participate in the Hiroshima/Nagasaki commemoration on Thursday August 9, 2012 (Nagasaki Day) organized by the Hiroshima Day Coalition at the Church of the Holy Trinity, 19 Trinity Square (behind the Eaton Centre). The commemoration starts at 6.15 p.m.

Joe Ohori will read the City of Hiroshima Peace Proclamation. Setsuko Thurlow will recall her experience of the atomic bombing and, with Mr. Ohori, will launch two peace lanterns in memory of those who perished in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Other commemoration participants include Toronto City Councillor Raymond Cho who will read Mayor Ford?s Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Proclamation, M.P. Peggy Nash, Ilario Maiolo from the Canadian Red Cross and novelist Joy Kogawa. There will also be music by the Yakudo Drummers, the Raging Grannies, the Soka Gakkai Youth Choir and Flautist Ron Korb.

Peggy Nash, Finance critic for the New Democratic Party, will outline the NDP?s policy on nuclear weapons abolition.

Ilario Maiolo, Senior Legal Advisor for the Canadian Red Cross, will speak about the appeal to the international community by the Red Cross to abolish nuclear weapons because of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons.
The above events are free and open to the public.

For further information, please consult the Hiroshima Day Coalition website http://www.hiroshimadaycoalition.ca/

To arrange media interviews, please contact Anton Wagner awagner@yorku.ca 416-863-1209

For Peggy Nash, please contact Shelley Melansen, 416-769 5072 or email Peggy.Nash.C1B@parl.gc.ca

Anton Wagner for the
Hiroshima Day Coalition

Members of HDC: Canadian Voice of Women for Peace; Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre; Toronto ?Article 9? Group; Physicians for Global Survival; Science for Peace; Toronto Area Interfaith Council; Veterans Against Nuclear Arms.

Other commemoration sponsors: Canadian Pugwash Group; Conscience Canada; Toronto National Association of Japanese Canadians; Global Zero, War Resisters Support Campaign.


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For more information contact:
Anton Wagner
Media Relations
Hiroshima Day Coalition
Phone: 416-863-1209
Email: awagner@yorku.ca
Website: hiroshimadaycoalition.ca

Vinay Jindal
Chair
Hiroshima Day Coalition
Phone: 416-832-8413
Email: hiroshimaday@yahoo.ca
Website: www.hiroshimadaycoalition.ca

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Hiroshima Day Coalition

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• Arms Control
• Nuclear Disarmament
• Nuclear Weapons
• Nuclear Weapons Free Zone
• Peace
• Peace Education
• Weapons of Mass Destruction