Richland-Nagasaki Tie Unlikely

City Council members in this town founded to help develop the world’s first atomic bombs say they’re unlikely to back a proposal to begin a sister city relationship with Nagasaki, an A-bomb target.

Council members said they are concerned that any such connection should not require an apology from Richland to the Japanese city over the human toll from the World War II attack.

“My major concern is that we’re stepping on eggs in international roles we may not be prepared for,” Councilman Jerry Greenfield told a workshop on the proposal Monday.

Mayor Jim Hansen said he had talked to two people opposed to the proposal: a survivor of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and a woman whose husband was killed fighting in the Pacific.

“I heard the pain in both of their voices,” he said. “It’s a real concern to me whether the time is ready for that.”

Council members declined to set a date for a hearing on the proposal but said they would study it.

The project is promoted by Jim Stoffels, co-founder of a group called World Citizens for Peace.

Stoffels wants Richland to begin a sister city relationship with Nagasaki’s Urkami District and a “special relationship” with the rest of the city.

The two cities can’t have an official sister city relationship because Nagasaki already is a sister city with St. Paul, Minn.

Nagasaki was attacked Aug. 9, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb - nicknamed “Fat Man” - containing plutonium produced at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

Some 40,000 were killed, and the Japanese surrendered six days later.

Richland was created along with the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, which became a key part of the Manhattan Project, the massive, secret U.S. program begun in World War II to develop atomic weapons.

In addition to forging a relationship between the cities, Stoffels wants to create a $5 million Richland Peace Park that would include a science and technology museum dedicated to Hanford’s legacy.