FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) July 31, 2007 -- WHAT: Panel discussion featuring Hiroshima survivor, Yuko Nakamura
WHEN: August 6, 6 – 8 p.m.
WHERE: Friends Center, 1501 Cherry Street, in the Rufus Jones Room
THE WIDENING WAR tour is sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, and supported in Philadelphia by Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom and the Brandywine Peace Community. Other stops on the tour include Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Florence, Massachusetts.

Speakers:
• Yuko Nakamura, Hiroshima survivor; Secretary General of Kanagawa Atomic Bomb Sufferers Association; National Council member of Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations). Nakamura offers a first-hand perspective on the bombing of Hiroshima.
• Bal Pinguel, coordinator

of the American Friends Service Committee Peacebuilding & Demilitarization Program; former activist in the Philippines who became a political prisoner under the Marcos Dictatorship. Pinguel will present an overarching look at national movements to abolish nuclear weapons and foreign military bases.
• Bob Smith, local organizer, Brandywine Peace Community. Smith will outline local organizing to commemorate August 6 & 9 in Philadelphia area.
A question and answer period follows. Light refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact: Mariko Franz, (215) 241-7199, mfranz@afsc.org, or Allison Budschalow, (215) 241-7179, abudschalow@afsc.org.

BACKGROUND

The first atomic bomb used in war

time was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing approximately 150,000 people by the end of the year. The horrors of the Hiroshima remind us of the importance of striving for a nuclear-free world. Yet with a brutal war raging in Iraq, the possibility of war in Iran, continued nuclear proliferation, and over 700 US military bases in over 72 countries, working towards peace becomes increasingly critical.

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker social justice organization, has long abhorred the suffering and injustice of war. Best known for launching massive feeding programs to aid World War II refugees, the Service Committee spoke out against the internment of Japanese-Americans and helped thousands relocate and start new lives. For decades, AFSC took a lead role in the Nuclear Freeze movement of the 1980s and has helped bring Hiroshima survivors, or Hibakusha, to the United States to tell their stories.