Human Relations Commission Recommends City Council Commemorate Nuclear Attack on Hiroshima

The Human Relations Commission on Tuesday voted to recommend that the Pasadena City Council officially commemorate through a proclamation the 80th Anniversary of the Hiroshima Bombing at a City Council meeting in July.

Near the end of World War II, on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, America detonated two nuclear bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively.

Estimates say 150,000 to 246,000 people, most of whom were civilians, were killed in the blasts.

The incidents, so far, remain the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict.

Japan surrendered less than a week later.

America entered the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the bombing was not the only horrific tragedy.

Councilmember Gene Masuda’s parents, Sam and Alice, were among thousands of Japanese Americans rounded up and held in “relocation centers” until the war ended.

One of those hurriedly constructed camps was at the Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia. There, the couple was placed in a horse stall before eventually being separated, with Masuda’s father being sent to another relocation camp, Manzanar, in Owens Valley, and his mother, pregnant at the time with Gene’s older brother, interned at Tule Lake.

Local servicemen that died during the war are commemorated on a plaque at Memorial Park.

The request to recognize the nuclear attack came to the Commission through students from Westridge School, who early on requested that the Commission help them achieve their goal of incorporating nuclear weapons education in Pasadena High Schools.

The Commission has no purview over the Pasadena Unified School District curriculum and encouraged the students to approach the school Board.

“Nonetheless, our Commission was touched by their passion and the steps they are taking to pursue their goals for world peace and nuclear disarmament,” the Commission said in a draft letter included in Tuesday’s agenda. “We hope you will feel the same.”

The Commission decided to support the students by addressing the terror of the Hiroshima Bombing, and the now peaceful relationship between the United States and Japan.

“We hope you will agree and provide a proclamation during ceremonial matters in July 2025 at the City Council meeting,” the letter concludes. “Our Commission will be happy to assist in any way we can if the City Council agrees to do this.”