The Connection Between Peace Vigils, Offutt Air Force Base and Hiroshima

Crossing the white line at Offutt Air Force Base can land a person in jail. This has occurred during peace vigils held there because of the line crossed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the first atomic bomb was dropped. There are still survivors of the dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of them, Kaz Suyeishi, was in Omaha recently and told her story. She was born in the United States and is a U.S. citizen. Gram, as she likes to be called, was a teenager when the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She actually saw it drop out of the sky. Gram, who was about a mile from where the atomic bomb came down, was able to take shelter in a nearby building and therefore didn't suffer as much as many of the other survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Her father was badly burned. Gram and her father have always been pacifists.

The peace vigil at Offutt Air Force Base included signs about the atomic bombing. One of the signs quoted Pope Paul VI who considered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be a butchery of untold magnitude. Another sign stated that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were war crimes committed by the United States. The institute for Historical Review mentions that Japan was attempting to seek peace before the atomic bombs were dropped. This was known before the end of the war but could not be printed in news sources because of the war.

There are still grave concerns about nuclear weapons, sixty three years after the first atomic bomb was dropped. It is Stratcom, at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska, that controls the nuclear weapons in the United States. This is why there are continuing peace vigils by various Catholic Organizations in the region. They are deeply involved in it because the Catholic Church considers the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be a sin. This has created a great deal of controversy as mentioned in the History News Network.