{"id":722,"date":"2017-06-20T11:08:34","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T15:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/?p=722"},"modified":"2021-03-09T12:51:22","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T16:51:22","slug":"brave-wooden-boat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/2017\/06\/20\/brave-wooden-boat\/","title":{"rendered":"The Reynolds Family, the Nuclear Age and a Brave Wooden Boat"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Jessica Renshaw<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Not<\/em>e: This is the text of Jessica\u2019s talk at the June 17, 2017 Ban the Bomb March in Los Angeles.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"

Jessica Renshaw<\/p><\/div>\n

I want to tell you a story\u2014a true, personal story. \u00a0(To save time, I\u2019ll just tell you I\u2019m 73!)<\/p>\n

I was one year old when nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. \u00a0Six years later our family moved to Hiroshima. \u00a0My father, Dr. Earle Reynolds, was a scientist. \u00a0The Atomic Energy Commission sent him to study the effects of radiation on children exposed to the bomb.<\/p>\n

For 3 years, Dad studied 4,800 children. In his spare time he built a 50-foot yacht named Phoenix of Hiroshima<\/em>.\u00a0In 1954 Dad submitted his findings on the dangers of radiation to the Atomic Energy Commission. Then our family sailed the Phoenix<\/em> around the world. Three young yachtsmen from Hiroshima went with us. This was only 9 years after our countries had been at war with each other.<\/p>\n

We sailed around the world for 3-1\/2 years.\u00a0 Two of our Japanese crew flew back to Hiroshima but Niichi Mikami stayed with us. \u00a0When we reached Honolulu in 1958, we were looking forward to sailing home to Hiroshima.<\/p>\n

But the United States was testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific. \u00a0Our government had just issued an injunction forbidding American citizens to enter that zone.\u00a0 It covered 390,000 square miles of ocean.\u00a0 We had to sail through that area to get back to Japan.<\/p>\n

The same Atomic Energy Commission which had hired Dad to find out the dangers of radiation was in charge of testing nuclear weapons. \u00a0My dad had written up his findings that radiation causes cancer and is not healthy for human beings. \u00a0He knew that added radiation from each nuclear test was poisoning the world\u2019s air and seas for decades to come. \u00a0But the Atomic Energy Commission had suppressed Dad\u2019s findings so they could assure the American public that nuclear tests are safe.<\/p>\n

My father the scientist became my father the activist and\u00a0 our pleasure cruise became one of protest. \u00a0In 1958 I was 14, my brother Ted was 20. \u00a0Our family and Niichi Mikami chose to sail the Phoenix<\/em> into the test zone as a protest against nuclear testing. \u00a0Dad was arrested, tried and convicted of trespass.\u00a0 Our government would later blackball him so he never got a job in his field again.<\/p>\n

In 1961 we sailed to Nakhodka, USSR to protest Soviet nuclear testing\u2014a normal American father, mother, 23-year old son, 17-year old daughter, a yachtsman friend and two cats. \u00a0By this time we had letters and telegrams from hundreds of survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, appealing for a nuclear ban. We had a good talk about peace with the captain of the Soviet Coast Guard boat which stopped us. But he refused to take the appeals.\u00a0 He turned us away.<\/p>\n

Back in Japan, we felt we had made no difference.\u00a0 My mother, Barbara Reynolds, felt a responsibility to get the appeals to the leaders of the world.\u00a0 On Christmas Day, 1961, she sat in the Hiroshima Peace Park, at the foot of the monument dedicated to the children killed by the atomic bomb. \u00a0She fasted and prayed there all day, appealing to the God\u00a0she did not yet know personally \u2014 for wisdom to know what to do with all the appeals of the hibakusha,<\/em> the bomb survivors.<\/p>\n

The answer came: the hibakusha<\/em> themselves must take these appeals to the world! With the city\u2019s blessing, my mother accompanied two survivors on a Peace Pilgrimage to the leaders of the nuclear nations and to the United Nations. \u00a0Then she accompanied 25 of them, from both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on a World Peace Study Mission. \u00a0When my mother died, the grateful hibakusha <\/em>erected a monument to her in the Peace Park\u2014their Ground Zero.<\/p>\n

The Phoenix of Hiroshima,<\/em> the brave wooden boat that took us into the Pacific test zone and to the USSR, is now at the bottom of the Sacramento River.\u00a0 Many people are trying to raise and restore her as a historic artifact, a piece of history.\u00a0 That website is phoenixofhiroshima.org<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, finally, we have hope. \u00a0The United Nations is considering a ban on nuclear weapons. \u00a0The children my dad studied when I was a child myself are in their 70s, 80s and 90s. They are coming to the UN with an appeal signed by nearly 3,000,000 people expressing\u00a0their own unique, single, heartfelt message:\u00a0 Don\u2019t let what happened to us happen again anywhere to anybody!\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us stand in solidarity with the hibakusha<\/em>: No more Hiroshima! \u00a0No more Nagasaki!<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: When Jessica Renshaw first contacted us, she said:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy life . . . has been devoted to two major causes: pro-life and anti-nuke . . . <\/em><\/p>\n

I have two pro-life books out: <\/em>GIANNA: Aborted and Lived to Tell About It\u00a0 and a novel, <\/em>Compelling Interests. I have one anti-nuclear book out, <\/em>To Russia with Love, about a protest voyage by yacht our family made in 1961, and have just published another one, <\/em>The Reynolds Family, the Nuclear Age, and a Brave Wooden Boat.<\/em><\/p>\n

I felt such relief, like two parts of me merged and were made whole, when I found your website! My causes really are just two consistent aspects of my concern.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"

Rehumanize International at the New York City June 17 March<\/p><\/div>\n

=======================================================<\/p>\n

For more of our blog posts on nuclear weapons, see:<\/p>\n

Nukes and the Pro-Life Christian<\/a>: A Conservative Takes a Second Look at the Morality of Nuclear Weapons (Karen Swallow Prior)<\/span><\/p>\n

Rejecting Mass Murder<\/a>: Looking Back on Hiroshima and Nagasaki<\/span><\/p>\n

Nuclear Disarmament as a Social Justice Issue<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“An Inferno That Even the Mind of Dante Could Not Envision\u201d: Martin Luther King on Nuclear Weapons<\/a><\/p>\n

A Global Effort to Protect Life: The UN Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Affairs of a Handful of Natives\u201d: Nuclear Testing and Racism<\/a><\/p>\n

Lethal from the Start: Uranium Mining\u2019s Danger to the Most Vulnerable<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Jessica Renshaw   Note: This is the text of Jessica\u2019s talk at the June 17, 2017 Ban the Bomb March in Los Angeles. I want to tell you a story\u2014a true, personal story. \u00a0(To save time, I\u2019ll just tell you I\u2019m 73!) I was one year old when nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima… <\/p>\n