Warheads to Windmills Newsletter November 2025

Welcome to the first edition of the Warheads to Windmills Newsletter.  The Coalition’s 70 members are hard at work around the country pushing for nuclear disarmament and environmental justice and we want you to be able to follow along!  Read current events and updates spotlighting our members and learn what’s going on across the movement.

This year marked 80 years of the nuclear age.  In New Mexico, where the first bomb was detonated, community and activists gathered to give reflections on its significance at the Trinity Site, and at events in Santa Fe commemorated the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and calling for global nuclear disarmament. These events highlighted the enduring threat of nuclear weapons, the need for reparations for New Mexico’s “downwinders,” and a renewed commitment to ending the nuclear age. Warheads to Windmills partner Jean Stevens put together the above video compilation of the commemorations.

On July 16, 2025, 80 years since the first nuclear detonation, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe hosted an interfaith vigil titled “80 Years and Still Waiting: An Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test,” which included prayers, speakers, and exhibitions calling for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. Archbishop Wester, and other bishops visited the Trinity site earlier in the week to pray and reflect on the significance of the event.

NukeWatch New Mexico hosted an event on August 6th, 2025, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, emphasizing the continuing threat of nuclear proliferation and cyber weapons.  Watch the video to see the “Up in Arms” demonstration showing the cost of nuclear weapons that was hosted on site as part of the event.  The 80th commemoration of the bombing of Nagasaki was commemorated by the New Mexico Peace Festival and partially sponsored and supported by NukeWatch New Mexico, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Back from the Brink, and the Taos Environmental Film Festival among other disarmament organizations in New Mexico. 

These commemorations coincided with recent efforts to provide reparations to New Mexico’s “downwinders”- those affected by radiation from the nuclear weapon detonation at Trinity and those that followed in the surrounding area– who were previously excluded from federal compensation programs.  The program in Taos featured the “Weaving Waters” dance performance by dancingearth.org, which addressed the issue of pollution and the threat of nuclear weapons to the environment and environmental degradation.  

The events served as a platform for antinuclear activists and organizations to call for disarmament and a world free from nuclear weapons. They emphasized the importance of remembering the victims of the nuclear age and understanding the devastating impact of nuclear weapons.  The future of disarmament lies with the crucial role of youth in bringing these stories forward, advancing nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation education, and securing a safer future. This video was made to reinforce and underscore the yearly United Nations International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on September 26 during the 80th anniversary of Trinity, Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings plus all the victims worldwide of nuclear testing. 

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In August, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in partnership with Sokka Gakkai International, held the second part of the Choose Hope Symposium in Hiroshima, following the gathering held in Santa Barbara in March following the 3rd Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The program in Hiroshima had two goals: to develop an action plan for objectives laid out in the Choose Hope Declaration of the Santa Barbara Symposium and to communicate with the Japanese general public and leaders on the urgency of nuclear abolition. The NAPF delegation consisted of Dr. Ivana Hughes, Christian N, Ciobanu, our Director of Policy and Advocacy, Kenneth Chiu, our Communications and Media Coordinator, and three NAPF interns and Columbia University students, Kate Jang, Erica Kokor, and Valeriya Zherebtsova. Author Annie Jacobsen, who delivered the Kelly Lecture in March in Santa Barbara, joined the symposium and delivered keynote remarks during the public session.

The participants had the opportunity to spend time at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, where they learned from exhibits featuring the human toll of the bombs: the victims who perished and the survivors who suffered, often for the remainder of their lives. That afternoon, In closed workshops among stakeholders, about 40 students, civil society members, academics, activists, and experts gathered to discuss the future of nuclear abolition, nuclear justice, and the intersections between climate change and nuclear weapons. The fruitful conversations laid the basis for achieving the symposium’s goals, including through the development of an action plan.

During the public symposium, panels of experts convened to explore critical challenges in nuclear disarmament. NAPF’s Christian Ciobanu and Dr. Ivana Hughes, alongside Annie Jacobsen, and Masako Toki from the James Martin Center for Nuclear Non-Proliferation Studies, discussed the path toward nuclear disarmament and nuclear justice in a panel moderated by Chie Sunada, SGI’s Director of Disarmament and Human Rights. The second panel, featuring student and SGI member Sayaka Morii, Hideo Asano from the Japan Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, and NAPF’s Kenneth Chiu and Valeriya Zhrebetsova, centered on the role of youth and hope in shaping a nuclear-free future. The second panel was moderated by Professor Luli van der Does from Hiroshima University.

What’s next?
In January we will celebrate the 5 year Banniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force and international law on January 22nd, 2021. Do you have something planned? Let us know and stay tuned!

Have a story or suggestion for the Warheads to Windmills Newsletter?  Please write to adevos@napf.org.