Mayor Tonya Graham read the recently adopted “City of Ashland Hiroshima-Nagasaki Days August 6 & 9 Proclamation” at the Remembrance Vigil in Lithia Park.

2023 City of Ashland  PROCLAMATION Commemorating the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

We are living in a time of extraordinary nuclear dangers, in which the risk of nuclear war has risen to its highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. As the invasion of Ukraine has shown, nuclear threats are real, present and dangerous. Accidents, miscalculations, or intentional use loom over us all.

Ashland’s public commitment to end the threat of nuclear catastrophe dates back to 1982, when its citizens passed a ballot measure declaring the city a Nuclear Free Zone. The non-profit organization called Peace House grew out of that effort in 1983. 

Ashland became a Mayors for Peace city in 1998, responding to a global invitation from the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons. As of July 1st , there are now 8,265 Mayors for Peace cities in 166 nations, including 225 in the U.S. and 7 in Oregon. 
Mayors for Peace enthusiastically supports the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, adopted in July 2017, under United Nations auspices. It entered into force January 2021, is legally binding on the 68 governments that have ratified it thus far. Another 24 nations have signed it, awaiting ratification.

The Oregon Legislature passed Senate Joint Memorial 5 in 2019, calling on the President and Congress to lead global efforts to reduce the threat of nuclear war.  In 2022, Ashland became home to two living Green Legacy Hiroshima Peace trees that were germinated at Southern Oregon University from seeds of survivor trees of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The Peace Ginkgo is near Thalden Pavilion on the SOU campus, and the Peace Camellia is in front of Lithia Park’s Japanese Garden.

This past June, the U.S. Conference of Mayors adopted a resolution urging Congress to pass House Resolution 77 “Embracing the Goals and Provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.” It also calls for renewed efforts to re-establish high-level U.S.-Russian risk-reduction and arms control talks, efforts to reduce tensions with other nuclear-armed nations, and the redirection of some military spending to meet human needs.

During August 6th through the 9th, concerned citizens, civic organizations and faith communities in Ashland and the Rogue Valley will commemorate the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, renewing commitments to prevent such weapons from ever being used again.”

NOW THEREFORE, THE City Council and Mayor, on behalf of the citizens of Ashland, hereby
proclaim August 6, 2023, as: 

              “Hiroshima Day”

and hereby proclaim August 9, 2023, as: 

              “Nagasaki Day”

in the City of Ashland, and invite all citizens to participate in the Hiroshima – Nagasaki Vigil
activities.