BETHLEHEM, PA, January 24, 2019: Moravian College today announced it will host a public lecture open to students and the community titled Life Under the Mushroom Cloud: Peacebuilding and Activism given by Steve Leeper and Emiko Okada on Wednesday, January 30 at 7:00 p.m. on the Main Street campus of Moravian College in the Haupert Union Building, Prosser Auditorium at 1119 Monocacy Street in Bethlehem. This public lecture is free to attend and is part of the 2019 InFocus/Peace and Justice Scholars in Residence program at Moravian College.
“Emiko Okada’s personal story about her life before, during, and after the first-ever use of the atomic bomb, and the consequences of this destruction in her own and other people’s lives, is riveting and unforgettable,” said Kelly Denton-Borhaug, Executive Director, InFocus Centers of Investigation at Moravian College. “Both Mrs. Okada and Steve Leeper also will speak about the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and the Hibakusha Appeal Campaign. Most Americans never have had the opportunity to hear directly from survivors of the atomic bomb and the reality of 'life under the mushroom cloud.' We expect this to be a moving learning opportunity that will expand public awareness regarding the reality of what the bomb means for human beings and the planet."
Steve Leeper has been an activist working for the abolition of nuclear weapons since 1998. From 2002 to 2013 he worked for the city of Hiroshima and its campaigning NGO, Mayors for Peace. He has recently been appointed international campaign manager for the Hibakusha Appeal Campaign, which has collected 10 million signatures in Japan but is almost unknown in the U.S. and around the world.
Emiko Okada is a hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor) from Hiroshima and has been working for decades to raise consciousness about the horror of nuclear weapons. They are working together now to build a grassroots campaign that will bring the issue of nuclear weapons into global public consciousness.
To learn more about this event on January 30, please visit .
Event contact:
Kelly Denton-Borhaug, Ph.D.
Professor, Global Religions Department
Executive Director, InFocus Centers of Investigation
denton-borhaugk@moravian.edu
Media contact:
Michael Corr
Director of Marketing and Communications
corrm@moravian.edu
610.861.1365
鶹 Moravian College
Moravian College is a private coeducational liberal arts college, located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees. For more than 275 years, the Moravian College degree has been based on a liberal arts curriculum where literature, history, science, cultural values, global issues, ethics, artistic expression, and the social sciences are infused with multidisciplinary perspectives. Visit to learn more about how the Moravian College liberal arts curriculum prepares its students for life-long success.
###