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Remembering Hiroshima & Nagasaki as the world draws closer to nuclear war than ever before

Leave a Commenton Remembering Hiroshima & Nagasaki as the world draws closer to nuclear war than ever before

“As we come together to remember the destruction the atom bombs inflicted on the people of Japan, action against nuclear weapons has never been more urgent.”

Carol Turner, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), describes what happened when atom bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and reminds us how close we could be to that same fate today.

Ceremonies will be taking place in towns and cities across Britain in this coming week to remember and respect the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of the atomic bombs that dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6th and 9th August in 1945.

At least 75,000 died in the immediate aftermath of the Hiroshima bomb; another 40,000 died when the second bomb hit Nagasaki. By the end of the year, it is estimated 210,000 were dead, which had risen to 340,000 by the end of 1950. Second and third generation Hibakusha, the survivors, still suffer severe health consequences.

London CND has estimated that over 2.3 million would die in a nuclear attack on London, and 2.6 million more would be injured. An 8-minute graphics video. What if we nuke a city, by Kurzgesagt (In a Nutshell) explains what would happen to the local population if a nuclear bomb hit their city.

As we come together to remember the destruction the atom bombs inflicted on the people of Japan, action against nuclear weapons has never been more urgent. Our world is closer to nuclear war than it has ever been:

• The war in Ukraine is escalating. The decision by the US and other NATO governments, to permit the weapons they supply to Ukraine to be deployed against military targets inside Russia is the latest in a saga of escalating threats and belligerence on both sides.

• Israel’s remorseless bombardment of the people of Gaza poses a spill-over into war across the region. Events of the past week move us even closer. Israel too is a nuclear armed state, one of nine in the world.

• All nine nuclear-armed states are capable of wielding nuclear bombs hundreds of times more powerful than those used against Japan. All nine are continuing to ‘modernise’ their nuclear arsenals.

Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki is more than an historical gesture. London Region CND’s Hiroshima Day commemoration takes place on Tuesday, 12 noon in Tavistock Square Peace Gardens, opened by the Mayor of Camden. CND General Secretary Kate Hudson will join me there for speeches, prayers, songs. and poems.

Events take place in venues across London and in others cities throughout the week. If you can’t make it, you may like to visit CND’s online exhibition or view the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum’s short testimony of a survivor.

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• Carol Turner is a Vice Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and Chair of London Region CND. She is author of Corbyn & Trident: Labour’s continuing controversy and Walter Wolfgang: A Political Life.
• You can view a list of commemorative events here.
• You can follow the CND on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X.
• If you support Labour Outlook’s work amplifying the voices of left movements and struggles here and internationally, please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon.