Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki

During the Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemoration events this week, Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida reiterated that despite the widening nuclear threats in the world, “we must continue moving forward” on the path to nuclear disarmament. The remarks come amidst on-going concerns that Japan could quickly develop nuclear weapons given its plutonium stockpile accumulated from its civil nuclear power program and commonly described as Japan’s “bomb in the basement”.

Last year, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger said that Japan was “heading towards becoming a nuclear power in five years”. Kishida insisted in his remarks this week that Japan will work “towards the realization of a world without nuclear weapons.” Nevertheless, Japan has not signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Meanwhile, far from disarming, the world’s nuclear powers appear to be ramping up their arsenals. “As we mourn the loss of all those killed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki by US atomic bombs, in August 1945, we cannot avoid the fact that we are closer than ever to nuclear war,” writes CND general secretary, Kate Hudson, on Beyond Nuclear International this week. ” This is a bad time for humanity — and for all forms of life on Earth. It’s time for us to stand up and say No: we refuse to be taken into nuclear Armageddon.”

Each year in the greater Washington, DC area, a commemoration is held by the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Committee of the National Capitol Region. In addition to a vigil downtown, an online event was also held this year, featuring speakers Gwen DuBois of Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility; Linda Pentz Gunter of Beyond Nuclear; and Fan Yang of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and hosted by John Steinbach. A highlight of the event — available to watch on YouTube — were remarks made by Hiroshima survivor, Hideko Tamara. Contributions were also made by Melvin Hardy, Dennis Nelson, Ellen Thomas and James Wagner. Hardy described how children from All Souls Church Unitarian sent art supplies to Hiroshima children who then sent some of their pictures back to All Souls. (One is pictured in the headline image.) Many decades later, a trip was made to Hiroshima with the drawings and paintings for a meeting with some of the original artists. A film, Pictures from a Hiroshima Schoolyard, tells this moving story.

In Toronto, Canada, an exhibition was held of 100 photos commemorating the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including five taken by the only Japanese photographer present on the day in Hiroshima. All of the photos can be viewed on line. Read the article about the exhibition on Beyond Nuclear International.