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Memorial for WW II atomic bombings now 'couldn't be more important': Saskatoon councillor

Memorials for the victims of the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings could not be more important or timely due to recent American and North Korean posturing, said one Saskatoon councillor.

'Certainly not in my lifetime have I been more worried about a repeat,' said Coun. Cynthia Block

Bridget Yard · CBC News ·
Speakers at the event held by the city's Japanese-Canadian community warned not only of nuclear war, but long-running persecution. (Bridget Yard/CBC)

At an event on Tuesday evening remembering the victims of the 1945 atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Saskatoon Ward 6 councillor Cynthia Block remarked to the crowd "the timing of this event perhaps couldn't be more important."

"Certainly not in my lifetime have I been more worried about a repeat," she said.

Some estimates put the number of people killed in Hiroshima at 140,000 by the end of 1945, while 74,000 people were killed at Nagasaki when the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities during the Second World War.

People are still being persecuted.- Bwegoh Soe, refugee

On the 72nd anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki on Aug. 9, U.S. President Donald Trump warned North Korea of "fire and fury like the world has never seen" in response to nuclear threats against Guam.

Ward 6 councillor Cynthia Block addresses the crowd at an annual memorial for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (Bridget Yard/CBC)

Speakers at the event held by the city's Japanese-Canadian community warned not only of nuclear war, but long-running persecution. 

Bwegoh Soe grew up in refugee camps because of persecution in his native Myanmar, and told the crowd about his experiences. (Bridget Yard/CBC)

"We're here to remember people who have suffered and were persecuted. People are still being persecuted," said Bwegoh Soe, who came to Canada as a refugee — a victim of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.

"​I'm one of 3.5 million displaced people. I was born in a Thailand refugee camp," he said.

The 27-year-old moved to Canada at 16, and is often invited to events as a guest speaker to recount his experiences.

"When I was young I started to feel the pain and suffering, and see people suffer around me. No children should feel like this."

Yasuo Hitomi tells the crowd at Saskatoon's Hiroshima/Nagasaki memorial about his grandfather, who experienced wartime in Japan, and told him 'atomic bombs are so terrible. So people can’t make them again.' (Bridget Yard/CBC)

Yasuo Hitomi, another guest speaker, grew up in Japan before attending the University of Saskatchewan.

His grandfather often recounted stories much like the ones Soe tells, but from a different era.

"Every time, he said atomic bombs are so terrible. So people can't make them again. Every time he said the same thing," Hitomi recalled.

Hitomi belongs to a Hiroshima supporter's club in Japan, and said the Japanese people "pray every year" in remembrance of the disasters.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bridget Yard

Bridget Yard is the producer of CBC's Up North. She previously worked for CBC in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan as a video journalist and later transitioned to feature storytelling and radio documentaries.

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