Peace activists will have events in Oak Ridge and Knoxville starting Saturday and ending Wednesday that will recall the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II, and the activists will call for a ban on nuclear weapons.
The U.N. estimates nations around the world still have some 15,000 nuclear weapons in their arsenals.
On a positive note, he highlighted a major development in 2017, in particular the adoption last month of the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons by UN Member States.
"Today, we pledge together with the millions of people all over the world to work tirelessly for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons and all weapons", said a student. This has brought deep unease in Hiroshima, even as many Japanese appear resigned to the growing threat.
"This hell is not a thing of the past", Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said at the ceremony.
"As long as nuclear weapons exist and policymakers threaten their use, their horror could leap into our present at any moment".
In the city's annual peace declaration, Matsui pointed out that it is time to "strive to advance further towards a nuclear-weapon free world".
"The states possessing nuclear weapons have a special responsibility to undertake concrete and irreversible steps in nuclear disarmament".
He warned against the stockpile of 15,000 nuclear weapons and risky rhetoric regarding their use.
But many Americans believe they hastened the end to a bloody conflict and ultimately saved lives on both sides, thus justifying the bombings.