Solemn and Powerful Gathering at the Livermore Lab Gates on the 80th Anniversary of the US Bombing of Hiroshima
by Marylia Kelley and Scott Yundt
Around 100 people gathered at the Westgate entrance to Livermore Lab on the morning of Tuesday, August 6, 2025 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
The theme of the event was, 80 Years of Nuclear Devastation: Remember our History, Reshape Our Future.
A wonderful slate of speakers provided compelling insights and actions for the engaged audience. These speakers included Arjun Makajani, PhD (Institute for Energy and Environmental Research), Helen Jaccard (Veterans for Peace), Marylia Kelley (Tri-Valley CAREs Senior Advisor), Reverends Michael Yoshi (speaking on Japanese Internment during WWII) and Monica Cross (CA Poor Peoples Campaign) and Patricia Ellsberg (Activist).
Participants then joined in a “die-in” reenactment of the bombing. Bodies were outlined in street in front of the nuclear weapons lab at witnesses solemnly watched. They were then brought back together, with their ancestors in mind and were led in a Japanese Tradition of Bon, performing symbolic dance steps in the road to remember the nearly quarter million dead of 80 years ago.
Lastly nine people took part in nonviolent civil disobedience by blocking the gate to the Lab after the police issued the call to disperse. These protestors were cited and released.
“I feel keenly the responsibility to ‘pick up the torch’ being passed to us by the Japanese survivors of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” said Tri-Valley CAREs senior advisor, Marylia Kelley. “Being at Livermore Lab with other peace advocates on August 6 is part of my commitment to ensure the world never forgets the human devastation of nuclear weapons and the imperative for their abolition.”
“We as a nation are at a pivot point,” said Livermore resident and Tri-Valley CAREs executive director, Scott Yundt. “The Trump administration’s recent budget contains a 58-percent increase in “Nuclear Weapons Activities,” according to Dept. of Energy (DOE) documents. Likewise, the DOE budget for Livermore Lab is rising to nearly $3 billion, 89.5% of which is solely for one budget line, “Nuclear Weapons Activities.” Yundt continued, “This moves the U.S. and world further away from the vision of the Hibakusha – and toward repeating the sin of using nuclear weapons, only now with weapons of vastly greater sophistication – and up to hundreds of times the explosive power of those first A-bombs. We must step back from the abyss while we still can. The August 6 commemoration at Livermore Lab is one such step.”
The event was one of many across the United States and the world observing the horrors of that day 80 years ago while reflecting on the nuclear threats of today.