Program set to mourn bombing of Hiroshima

Tuesday, Aug. 6, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

For a dozen years the Nevada Desert Experience has hosted a ceremony remembering the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This year is no exception, as Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty negotiations continue.

"With the Comprehensive Test Ban negotiations still in process and the recent World Court decision expressing the illegality of nuclear weapons, the world (is moving) toward a future free of the threat of nuclear holocaust," a NDE statement said.

An NDE program called "Closing the Circle on Nuclear Weapons" begins Friday at UNLV. It concludes with a prayer services and nonviolent action that begins at 7:30 a.m. Sunday at the Nevada Test Site.

With the program, the ecumenical organization plans to remember the atomic weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

The group's concept was taken from a book title published by the U.S. Department of Energy in 1995 called "Closing the Circle on the Splitting of the Atom: the Environmental Legacy of Nuclear Weapons Production in the United States and what the Department of Energy is Doing About It."

Participants will urge the DOE to end research, development, testing and production of these weapons.

At 6:30 p.m. Saturday at a field near UNLV's Classroom Complex Building, artists Kazuaki Tanahashi and Mario Uribe will direct a performance of the "Circle of All Nations." Their project was created last year for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in San Francisco.

The Nevada Desert Experience takes its cue from a movement that began in the 1950s, protesting nuclear tests. Although President George Bush halted underground nuclear experiments at the Test Site in 1992, the vigil continues.

"It is through weekends of remembrance like these that we gain the strength and focus we need to continue the task of total disarmament," said the Rev. Louie Vitale, a Franciscan priest with local ties who has been watching negotiations on a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in Geneva.

"While we applaud the efforts of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the public must recognize that nuclear powers still have the capabilities and plans to continue the testing and production of nuclear weapons via mega-computers," he said.