Fears about a nuclear war are foremost on people’s minds amid escalating tension between the United States and North Korea.
Wednesday marks 72 years since the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
A few dozen people honored the solemn day by marching toward the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a facility known for its role in the country’s nuclear arsenal.
While attendees gathered to remember the lives lost at the end of World War II in Japan, speaker after speaker condemned President Donald Trump’s recent remark that the U.S. would respond with “fire and fury” if North Korea were to make any nuclear threats.
“What is happening now is not a defense of the United States,” said Fred Norman, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. “What we’re doing now seems to be almost a deliberate attempt to draw us into war.”
Meanwhile Shirley Osgood said her thoughts were with her granddaughters, ages 4 and 5.
“I’ll be 70 soon, but they’re just little kids,” she said. “They deserve a planet. They deserve to live and have some happiness.”
