SINCE THEN
Written and performed by Chisao Hata
Hiroshima & Nagasaki Memorial 2025, Never Again: Art Speaks Where Words Fail — Art’s Enduring Protest 80 Years Later
(This is read with audience participation.
All stand if you are able and willing to.)
Breathe in air
That sustains our lives
Breathe in this day
As we come together
Breathe in humanity
As we remember those who walked with us and those
who came before us.
62 years ago women came together
For the first Portland Hiroshima Day
Together they walked 9 miles
The perimeter of the A-bomb
Walking in sorrow
And in hope
Crying Peace is our shelter
We continue their legacy
We continue today to pray and breathe hope
We Continue today to pray and breathe......action.
(together breathe in slowly 4 counts and out for 4 counts)
Repeat 3x
Since then........
80 years ago
The atomic child was born
War, hate, and racism
Drove the war machine
To kill
To destroy
And we
Forgot the sacredness of life.
Soon
Those who lived through
Pain and loss
Grief and trauma
The memories and stories of survivors
Of WWII
Will no longer be spoken
Living memories will be gone
Only our renditions of history will remain
How will we continue to tell the stories?
(together breathe in slowly 4 counts and out for 4 counts)
Repeat 3x
Since Then........
We have been fighting
To hold on
To be heard
Included
Seen.
Fear and fascism
Violence and vengeance
Rear their heads
And greed reigns
Wars and more wars
Death and more death
Pain and more pain
Today's trauma of
loss and destruction
Create yet another generation of death
And global survivors cradling destruction.
Can we collectively combine
Our strength
Our pain
To shift to push
To collectively scream
our paradigm
AND tip the tipping point
Towards peace?
Close your eyes
Turn the page
Let us Imagine into reality.....
Let us sweat and cry a change
Let us hold hands and make it so.
(together breathe in slowly 4 counts and out for 4 counts)
Repeat 3x
Since Then.......
80 years from now
We worked fearlessly together
Our air is clean
Our water pure and free
Our children happy and safe
80 years from now
We will say.....
We climbed together
And built together
Through sweat while
Holding love and each other
80 years from now
Our Native lands renewed
Histories and contributions
Of people of color
Acknowledged and celebrated
80 years from now
Where will you be? Where will we be?
Can we begin now???
(together breathe in slowly 4 counts and out for 4 counts)
Repeat 3x
Hold silence together
