Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility

Learn more about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons, and the movement for nuclear justice.

Oregon PSR and our community partner organizations have begun planning the annual Portland-area memorial of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which this year will be held on Friday, August 6th beginning at 6:00 PM at the Japanese American Historical Plaza at Waterfront Park in downtown Portland (NW Naito Parkway & Couch Street).

In response to the ongoing pandemic, this year’s event will be a little different. It will include a brief ceremonial gathering at the Japanese American Historical Plaza featuring Rev. Eisei Ikenaga of Portland’s Nichiren Buddhist Temple. Following the remembrance ceremony, we will walk about two blocks to the Japanese American Museum of Oregon Annex (121 NW 2nd Avenue) for an exhibit called We Hold Sacred curated by Oregon PSR Advisory Board members Chisao Hata and Yukiyo Kawano.

Oregon PSR and our community partner organizations have begun planning the annual Portland-area memorial of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which this year will be held on Friday, August 6th beginning at 6:00 PM at the Japanese American Historical Plaza at Waterfront Park in downtown Portland (NW Naito Parkway & Couch Street).

In response to the ongoing pandemic, this year’s event will be a little different. It will include a brief ceremonial gathering at the Japanese American Historical Plaza featuring Rev. Eisei Ikenaga of Portland’s Nichiren Buddhist Temple. Following the remembrance ceremony, we will walk about two blocks to the Japanese American Museum of Oregon Annex (121 NW 2nd Avenue) for an exhibit called We Hold Sacred curated by Oregon PSR Advisory Board members Chisao Hata and Yukiyo Kawano.

We invite those who are fully vaccinated to join us in person on the evening of August 6th. Please note that attendance at both the ceremony at the Japanese American Historical Plaza and the exhibit opening at the Japanese American Museum of Oregon Annex will be limited. We also request that all attendees wear protective face masks during the exhibit.

Please RSVP below so that we have an idea of how many will attend. We will livestream the ceremony on our YouTube page for those who are not fully vaccinated or prefer to join from home.

Our work for a future free from the threat of nuclear weapons and nuclear war depends on your generous financial support. Please donate today!

All the major open-access slide shows on the Public Health and Social Justice website, curated by Oregon PSR Advisory Board Member Martin Donohoe, MD, have recently been updated (6/23/21 update). Open access means that all or a portion of any slide show can be used by anyone, with appropriate citation. The site addresses the social, economic, environmental, human rights, and cultural contributors to health and illness. Some of the content focuses on the medical humanities and the history of medicine.

This anthology, edited by Leah Stenson, conveys the enormity of Fukushima, the first nuclear disaster of the 21st Century on both the environmental and human scale. The second edition features all new prefatory material, including contributions by Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Helen Caldicott, Fairewinds Energy Education founder Maggie Gundersen, and professor emerita Dr. Norma Field. The essays examine the status of Fukushima ten years after the disaster through the lens of social, political, and environmental concerns.

What an extraordinary time for Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility to be celebrating our 40th anniversary. With the support of our members, donors, and volunteers, we’ve accomplished so much in these past four decades!

Challenging times can be times of profound growth and learning, and this has certainly been the case for Oregon PSR. The movements to promote peace and justice and to protect our climate continue to grow, and I encourage you to read about our ongoing work to make our world more just, peaceful, and healthy for all.

Oregon PSR is celebrating our 40th year of work for a more healthy, peaceful, and just world in 2021. We began from the powerful vision of our founders who sat on the living room floor in Dr. Karen Steingart’s house and strategized about how a health message could help prevent nuclear war. Over the next forty years, countless members, volunteers, and donors brought their passion and leadership to the organization, bringing a broad public health frame to issues such as environmental justice, gun violence, and climate health, learning and growing along the way.

Though 2020 and the early months of 2021 have posed a unique set of challenges to Oregon PSR’s work, we continue to learn and implement new ways to grow our movement for a more healthy, just, and peaceful world. With the support of our members and volunteers, we have taken advantage of online meeting technologies to broaden the reach of our Peace Program efforts well beyond the borders of our state, involving new partners and reaching new audiences. If you missed any of our recent events, be sure to check them out on our website, Facebook page, or our new YouTube channel.

Mass incarceration is a major public health issue in the United States. With over 2 million people currently incarcerated, the US leads the world by far in incarceration rates. The negative health impacts created by mass incarceration are present not only in prisons, but also in the communities that prisons are located and the communities where adults in custody come from, which are disproportionately lower income communities and communities of color.