A-Bomb Survivors to Help Harvest New Mexico Sunflowers, Carry Message of Hope to Los Alamos on Anniversary of Bombings

7/28/05 

Contact: Trish Williams-Mello, 505-265-1200

Corrales, NM – In a field of yellow and green, pruning shears in hand, aging survivors of the Hiroshima bomb blast will work alongside volunteers on August 3 and 4 to bring the international symbol of nuclear disarmament, the sunflower, to the birthplace of the atomic bomb: Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Survivors of the atomic blasts, known as hibakusha, will be helping to harvest thousands of sunflowers from a Corrales field. As many as five thousand flowers will brighten the lawn of the Ashley Pond Park in Los Alamos on August 6, as part of the Hiroshima Day commemoration. The event is sponsored by the Los Alamos Study Group to remember the day the bomb was dropped and to call for nuclear disarmament.

The sunflowers will be delivered to Los Alamos in a semi-tractor trailer rig on the morning of August 6 driven by one of many volunteers working with the Study Group for this event.

All of the hibakusha are over 60 years old now, and their numbers dwindle every year. They tell moving personal accounts of living through the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 or of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Members of the media who wish to document the poignant and beautiful sunflower harvest are asked to contact the Los Alamos Study Group to make an appointment for photo and filming times and interview possibilities.

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