August 6th U.S. Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima Commemoration in Santa Fe

Eighty Years Later, it is Beyond Time to Get Rid of Nuclear Weapons.

Last week on August 6, 2025, the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, community members gathered at the Center for Progress and Justice on Cerrillos Road in Santa Fe to honor the solemn occasion and demand an end to the ongoing nuclear weapons harm and destruction that first began here in New Mexico.

The event was organized by Nuclear Watch New Mexico in collaboration with the Up in Arms campaign by Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's, to reduce military and nuclear weapons spending, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (winners of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize), the Santa Fe Archdiocese, the Back from the Brink New Mexico Hub, and the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. It centered around a massive public art installation from Up in Arms of a towering cubic structure framed by messages on top of images of $100 bills. The structure is sized to literally hold $100 billion of those bills, respresenting what the U.S. spends every year on nuclear weapons (the total cost of nuclear weapons "modernization" is up to $2 trillion). Visible to thousands of drivers each day, the large installation pressures viewers to reckon with the scale of this cost and to imagine what else those resources could make possible. A prominent message on one of the four sides quotes the president in saying, "'We don't need to build brand new ones. We already have so many,' — Donald Trump" and below it, "His budget includes a down payment of $2 trillion of nuclear weapons." Another side reads, "The current U.S. nuclear arsenal is the equivalent of 50,00 Hiroshima explosions. One nuclear bomb killed over 100,000 people in Hiroshima."

The installation will remain on display for the foreseeable future, GO SEE IT NOW! 1420 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, NM 87505.

During the event, speakers Archbishop John C. Wester (by video from Japan), Tina Cordova of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders, Sophie Stroud from Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Anne Pierce-Jones from Back from the Brink, Ben Cohen representing Up in Arms, and Seth Shelden from ICAN all gave concrete steps and actions that concerned citizens can take to help promote a safer world. The speakers were presented by former Santa Fe County Commissioner Anna Hansen, who stated, “Disarmament is the only answer. I have spent my life working to end the nuclear cycle, as many have, and most of us in this room have never known a world without nuclear weapons.”

Speakers drew connections between the devastation in Hiroshima and the continued production of plutonium pits at LANL. At Los Alamos National Lab alone, five billion dollars will be poured into nuclear weapons programs in Fiscal Year 2026, starting this October. One billion dollars was added to last year’s budget, which includes a 42% increase for nuclear warheads. At the same time, nonproliferation programs are being cut, the science budget sliced in half, and funds for renewable energy zeroed out and gone completely. The push for "modernization" of the US’s nuclear arsenal is directly linked to plutonium pit production at Los Alamos, specifically expanding plutonium pit production. LANL will receive $1.7 billion in direct costs for pit production in 2026. Add in the indirect costs, and it’s roughly double that. All of this future pit production is exorbitantly expensive, yet the National Nuclear Security Administration still has no credible cost estimate for these plans.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: New plutonium pits are not needed to maintain the existing stockpile - it is all for future, new designs. And these new weapons cannot be tested because of the testing moratorium - or conversely could pressure the US to resume testing. In 2006, independent experts concluded that existing plutonium pits last at least a century. Their average age now is about 43 years. A new pit aging study is expected this year. Expansion plans should stop until then.

The U.S.’s $2 trillion “modernization” program is a plan to keep nuclear weapons forever. It is claimed to be essential for “deterrence.” But deterrence relies upon the flawed assumption that all actors will behave rationally, and that accidents or miscalculations will never occur. History says otherwise. Moreover, the U.S. and Russia have always rejected minimal deterrence in favor of nuclear warfighting capabilities that could end civilization overnight. That is why we have 1,000s of nuclear weapons and are funneling billions of dollars into mass death machines, even though everybody knows that a nuclear war must never be fought and can never be won.

See more on the myth of deterrance here:

Deterrence is the Threat: NukeWatch Presentation for Western New Mexico University – April 1, 2025

Media coverage of the event includes the Santa Fe New Mexican articles below:

New Mexico reckons with its role in Japan’s atomic devastation on 80th anniversary of Hiroshima

‘End the nuclear cycle’: Antinuclear New Mexicans speak out 80 years after Hiroshima bombing

View the full event recording - Click HERE or below:

Full Event Recording: Press Conference & Commemoration – Hiroshima Atomic Bombing 80th Anniversary Event (August 6, 2025)

View the photo gallery here:

Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester Attend the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester's UN Speech on the Immorality of Nuclear Weapons at the 3rd TPNW MSP

We had the honor of joining the Archbishop of Santa Fe, John Wester, in attending the third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons last week, March 3-7 in New York City. The archbishop gave mass to several different groups (see photos below) and spoke at the UN headquarters as part of Civil Society.

Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester blessing protesters against nuclear weapons on Ash Wednesday.  They are across the street from the United Nations for the Third Meeting of State  Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester with Kazakh artist Karipbek Kuyukov at the United  Nations for the Third Meeting of State Parties to the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.. Kuyukov was born without arms near a Soviet nuclear weapons testing site. He paints with a brush held between his teeth.

In New York City this week? Join Pax Christi members and friends at Mass with Archbishop John Wester (Santa Fe NM) on Tuesday, March 4, 6 pm, at the Church of Our Saviour, 59 Park Avenue at 38th Street. Use this link to RSVP. #TPNW #3MSP #nucleardisarmamentwww.dorothydayguild.org/WesterMass25

Pax Christi USA (@paxchristiusa.bsky.social) 2025-03-03T16:35:50.942Z

NNSA Town Hall July 22nd – Hruby: “We have to limit the growth of Los Alamos Laboratory…”

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) Los Alamos Field Office held a Town Hall event hosted by the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and EM on Monday, July 22, in Santa Fe. The Town Hall was led by NNSA’s Jill Hruby and EM’s Senior Advisor Candice Robertson. The intent according the event flier was to “engage with the community, provide updates, and address concerns related to the DOE’s activities and initiatives.”

The public comment period began with Jay Coghlan, executive director of NukeWatch NM, reading aloud a statement from Archbishop John C. Wester to the DOE, NNSA and EM.

“Nuclear disarmament is a right to life issue. No other issue can cause the immediate collapse of civilization. In January 2022 I wrote a pastoral letter in which I traced the Vatican’s evolution from its uneasy conditional acceptance of so-called deterrence to Pope Francis’ declaration that the very possession of nuclear weapons is immoral.  https://archdiosf.org/living-in-the-light-of-christs-peace “Therefore, what does this say about expanded plutonium pit production at the Los Alamos Lab? And what does it say about the obscene amounts of money that are being thrown at pit production, often excused as job creation?

“What does this say about the fact that the [NNSA] is pursuing expanded pit production without providing the public the opportunity to review and comment as required by the National Environmental Policy Act? I specifically call upon NNSA to complete a new LANL Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement.

“I have a simple message for NNSA and the nuclear weapons labs. You’re very good at creating them. Now show us how smart you are by demonstrating how to get rid of nuclear weapons. Stop this new arms race that threatens all of civilization. Let’s preserve humanity’s potential to manifest God’s divine love toward all beings.

READ FULL STATEMENT

NNSA adminstrator Jill Hruby began the event with a spiel about Russia continuing their nuclear saber rattling and China aquiring over 1500 nuclear weapons by 2025. She said NNSA is putting the pressure on to develop 7 weapons

Jill Hruby intro:

A lot has changed in the last 15 months. At the highest level Russia continues its full scale invasion of Ukraine including nuclear Saber rattling and the takeover of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. It has violated most nuclear norms and most recently seems to be exploring using nuclear weapons in space. China is projected to have 1500 nuclear warheads by the year 2035 and continue to express an intent to take over Taiwan, their technology advancement is significant, and the combination of China and Russia now means that parity in the number of nuclear weapons doesn’t make any sense. In addition, we have North Korea and Iran that are still players in this world and the cooperation between all of them is also advancing. But what I want to say is despite these advances, we do not want an arms race, this administration doesn’t want a new arms race, the NNSA doesn’t want an arms race. We’re trying to exercise leadership and transparency, but we also can’t sit on our hands, and so we’re trying to find the balance.
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Your NukeWatch NM Team in DC!

Your Nuclear Watch New Mexico team has just returned from a weeklong trip to Washington D.C. (we went so you don’t have to!). We proudly joined the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) in their annual “DC Days” conference and following Spring Meeting, where over 60 individuals from 30+ groups journeyed to DC to lobby congress on nuclear weapons, energy, and waste policy on behalf of the frontline nuclear communities we represent. From across the U.S. near nuclear complex sites in Georgia, New Mexico, Tennessee, California, Missouri, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan and beyond, members were present from the following groups: Beyond Nuclear, Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, Parents Against Santa Susana Field Laboratory, Peaceworks Kansas City, Physicians for Social Responsibility – Los Angeles & Wisconsin, Rocky Mountain Peace & Justice Center, Snake River Alliance, Southwest Research and Information Center, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. There were also a number of individual attendants participating from groups not currently affiliated with ANA as official members, notably more than previous years, which lends optimism for the potential growth of DC Days and ANA as a whole.

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Homily and Statement by Archbishop Wester to the Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

On November 29, 2023, the 34th anniversary of the death of Dorothy Day, and in conjunction with the Second Meeting of the State Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the Archbishop of Santa Fe John C. Wester gave a homily on nuclear disarmament at Our Church of the Savior near the United Nations. Dorothy Day was a life-long anti-nuclear weapons activist and is now being considered for canonization by the Catholic Church.

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U.S. Strategic Posture Commission Ratchets Up Nuclear Arms Race

Today, America’s Strategic Posture, The Final Report was released by the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States. In its own words:

“The Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States was established by the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and concludes that America’s defense strategy and strategic posture must change in order to properly defend its vital interests and improve strategic stability with China and Russia. Decisions need to be made now in order for the nation to be prepared to address the threats from these two nuclear-armed adversaries arising during the 2027-2035 timeframe. Moreover, these threats are such that the United States and its Allies and partners must be ready to deter and defeat both adversaries simultaneously.”

The United States has already embarked upon a $2 trillion “modernization” program that is a complete makeover of its nuclear forces. This program will rebuild every warhead in the planned future stockpile while giving them new military capabilities. It will also build new-design nuclear weapons and new missiles, subs and bombers to deliver them, plus new nuclear weapons production plants expected to be operational until the 2080’s.

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Photos from Japan Pilgrimage of Peace

Image Credit: The Archdiocese of Seattle Website (Daily Digests), Leslie M. Radigan & Archdiocese of Santa Fe Official Facebook Page, and Jay Coghlan of NukeWatch New Mexico.

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August 1 - First day of our Pilgrimage of Peace Novena in Japan
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August 2 - At Sophia, a Catholic University in Tokyo, attended by our leader, Hiro, where we toured the campus and met some of his teachers.
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August 2 - AB Wester and AB Etienne met with a reporter for The Asahi Shimbun paper to discuss the vision and purpose of this Pilgrimage of Peace, saying “Pope Francis has changed the moral needle with a seismic shift in the thinking on nuclear. He is saying even having nuclear weapons is immoral. He is laying the challenge before us…We want to start and sustain a thriving conversation on nuclear.” They shared the vision for verifiable multilateral nuclear disarmament as a pathway to peace and explained that many might think they are naive. “But we believe it’s far more naive to continue with what we’re doing now.”
“We are here to see what we can do to advocate for peace and share the gospel,” said AB Etienne. We are here “to invite people to realize that we can have peace by growing relationships with our neighbors and communities. We need to do that as people before we can do so as nations.”
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August 3 - A train ride to Kamakura, a 12th-century city on the coast.
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August 3 - Walking up to the Zen Engaku-ji Temple in Kamakura, founded in 1282 by Mugaku Sogen to honor those killed in wars against Mongolia. The quiet and peacefulness of the temple grounds, meditation rooms, and garden were palpable.
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August 3 - The Zen Engaku-ji Temple, founded in 1282 by Mugaku Sogen to honor those killed in wars against Mongolia. The quiet and peacefulness of the temple grounds, meditation rooms, and garden were palpable.
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August 3 - The Great Buddha of Kamakura. The national treasure began in 1252 and was completed approximately 10 years later.
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August 3 - Kamakura Daibutsu (The Great Buddha of Kamakura). The national treasure began in 1252 and was completed approximately 10 years later.
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August 3 - In Kamakura, a 12th-century city on the coast of Japan, visiting the Sisters of the Visitation.
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August 4 - Hiroshima Peace Memorial with Genbaku Dome in Background
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August 4 - New Mexico and Seattle Pilgrims of Peace at Genbaku Dome, Hiroshima Peace Memorial
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August 4 - Genbaku Dome, Hiroshima Peace Memorial
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August 4 - Genbaku Dome, Hiroshima Peace Memorial
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August 6 - The Hiroshima Peace Park sign.
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August 6 - In Hiroshima, Japan
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August 6 - Hiroshima, Japan: Amidst this solemn atmosphere, the day elicited a mix of grief, reverence, and a call for peace, underscoring the importance of nuclear disarmament and the lasting effects of human conflict.
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August 7 - Nagasaki, Japan: Upon arrival, we met with the Mayor of Nagasaki, Mr. Shiro Suzuki, at City Hall. Our goal was to share our mission and express our interest in working collaboratively with the city and Japan's Catholic bishops. He shares our goals and is committed to working to abolish nuclear weapons. Archbishop Wester presented Mayor Suzuki with an Executive Order from the City of Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller commemorating August 9, 2023, "In Honor of The Japanese Innocent Lives Lost."
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August 7 - Nagasaki, Japan: Photo from event, "Interfaith Dialogue and Exchange of Religious Leaders with a Common Desire for World Peace"
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August 7 - Nagasaki, Japan: Urikami Cathedral for Mass
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August 8 - Nagasaki, Japan: the Atomic Bomb Museum.
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August 8 - Nagasaki, Japan: the Atomic Bomb Museum.
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August 9 - Our Lady of Nagasaki, a wooden head of the Virgin Mary that survived the bombing. Her burnt face is both miraculous and haunting as she reminds us of the devastation and pain of that horrific day.
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August 9 - The Madonna of Nagasaki - burnt 78 years ago by the plutonium bomb.
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August 9 - The Madonna of Nagasaki - burnt 78 years ago by the plutonium bomb.
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77th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki, Japan – Interfaith Discussion

SAVE THE DATE: 77th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki, Japan

Interfaith Discussion

Tuesday, August 9, 2022 


5:15 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

Followed by Panel Discussion with Interfaith Leaders at 6:15 p.m.


ALBUQUERQUE – Friday, July 1, 2022 – Join Most Rev. John C. Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe, for 5:15 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe, NM. His homily will be centered on his pastoral letter on nuclear disarmament, “Living in the Light of Christ’s Peace: A Conversation Toward Nuclear Disarmament,” released on January 11, 2022. Following Mass, at approximately 6:15 p.m., a panel discussion with prominent interfaith leaders on today’s need for nuclear disarmament will be held with a question and answer session. All are welcomed to either event.

In his pastoral letter, Archbishop Wester reflects upon his trip to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the history of Catholic social teaching on nuclear weapons, the history of the development and production of nuclear weapons in New Mexico, and Jesus’ example of nonviolence. He encourages all to read the pastoral letter and use the reflection questions and suggestions for action.

Archbishop’s pastoral letter can be found here.

For more information, contact the Office of Social Justice & Respect Life (505) 831-8205.

President Biden Should Let His Faith Guide Him Toward Nuclear Disarmament

Did you see what the Santa Fe Archbishop wrote in the very heart of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex?

With this pending Nuclear Posture Review, President Biden has the opportunity to show his moral leadership. I know he is capable. After all, much of what is needed is only to turn his own past words into new policy—and to reject today’s fearful status quo, embracing a new path that we can all live with.

Read the entire article here and see the picture.

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