The Aug. 7, 2016, observance of Peace DayGila Friends Meeting (Quaker) will observe Hiroshima Peace Day at 12:30 p.m. in the Gough Park pavilion on Sunday, August 6. The public is welcome to join in; please bring chairs.

The two atomic bombs the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, and on Nagasaki, Japan, three days later are the only nuclear weapons ever detonated in warfare. At least 80,000 people died instantly in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki. Many thousands more died later from the protracted effects of the radiation.

Some of those killed were Japanese military, fighting the United States in WWII. Many of the dead were civilians, including American citizens of Japanese descent. At least a dozen were American prisoners of war being held where the bombs burst. The full toll of casualties became known later, when leukemia, cancers and birth defects were recognized as results of the radiation exposure.

Several nations embarked on a race to build bigger and better thermonuclear bombs, among them the U.S., the U.S.S.R., Britain, China and France. India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have also developed nuclear weaponry.

By 1968, it was clear that the genie let out of the bottle at the Trinity Test could destroy the world. The United States and 190 other nations agreed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968, pledging to oppose the spread of nuclear weapons, to work toward nuclear disarmament and to support peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The treaty was reaffirmed in 1995.

Also in 1995, the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, including such world leaders as former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, bluntly declared: "The destructiveness of nuclear weapons is immense. Any use would be catastrophic. … The proposition that nuclear weapons can be retained in perpetuity and never used -- accidentally or by decision -- defies credibility. The only complete defence is the elimination of nuclear weapons and assurance that they will never be produced again."

At the United Nations on July 7, only a few weeks ago, 122 nations approved the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, banning the development and use of nuclear weapons. The United States and other nuclear nations neither participated in the discussion nor signed the treaty.

Gila Friends have been witnessing against these weapons of mass destruction for more than 30 years. Those who also recognize the awful consequences of nuclear weapons programs and want to keep that concern alive are encouraged to bring chairs and join in silent observance of this historic anniversary.