Two separate activities for Toronto's Hiroshima Day

Martin Cash and Muni Taub — August 1984

TORONTO – Monday August 6th marks the 39th anniversary of the nuclear bomh attack on Hiroshima. That single bomb (nicknamed “Little Boy”) instantly killed and burned over one hundred thousand people and destroyed an entire city. It also shook the world.

This month, millions of people around the world will remember the victims of the first use of atomic weapons in warfare.’

With the theme “HiroshimaNever Again,” peace groups in Toronto have organized a full day’s activities to commemorate that apocalyptic day in 1945.

Two separate demonstrations have been scheduled, the first of which (sponsored by the Against Cruise Testing coalition) will begin with a rally at noon in front of Toronto’s City Hall featuring the participation of Mayor Art Eggletom and, organizers hope, the ambassador of Japan. Protestors will then march up Yonge Street and west on College St. to King’s College Circle on the University of Toronto campus.

Speakers at the end of the march will include Doris Patterson of the United Steel Workers of America, and a representative of Hiroshima/Nagasaki Relived. Two minutes of silence and a balloon release will kick off a great afternoon of music with Maja Bannerman, Mendelson Joe, Robert Priest and Marie-Lynn Hammond.

ACT chairperson Angela Browning is also hoping to have federal NDP leader Ed Broadbent say a few words at the rally, which will come almost exactly one month before the nation goes to the polls to elect a new federal government.

The day’s second demonstration is sponsored by the Toronto Disarmament Network, the Cruise Missile Conver~ion Project. and the Labour.. Gouncil of Metro Toronto, and will take place outside Litton Industries at 25 Cityview Drive, Rexdale.

Because August 6 is a municipal holiday, organizers of the Litton rally are hoping to have the road closed off to allow as many people as posstble to congregate in front of the Litton plant, Toronto’s most active contributor to the arms race.

Entertainment will be provided by a Latin American folk music group, and will feature some trade union songs, some Arlene Mantle songs (wrilten for the occasion) and a drama performed by members of Performing Artists for Nuclear Disarmament.

Speakers will represent the labour, church, women’s and peace communities, including a British POW who was in Nagasaki at the time of the 1945 bombing. Organizers are hoping that Ed Broadbent and members of the other two national parties will speak at Litton.

The Peace Calendar

Canadian Disarmament Information Service, 1983-1984

Two separate activities for Toronto's Hiroshima Day