This week, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons launched a powerful online memorial commemorating the more than 38,000 children killed in the US nuclear bombings of Japan in 1945. The website is an interactive archive providing details about the lives of hundreds of these young victims. It is a moving artefact highlighting the totally indiscriminate violence of nuclear weapons, and their incompatibility with humanity.
Countless more children who survived the explosions were injured and traumatised, often for life. These mostly Japanese and Korean survivors of the first nuclear bombings are called the hibakusha (explosion-affected people), and in the 80 years since 1945 they have been at the forefront of the struggle for a nuclear-free world.
The advocacy of Nobel-winning hibakusha organisation Nihon Hidankyo and hibakusha campaigners like Setsuko Thurlowe of ICAN has sustained the legacy of the nuclear victims for 80 years. Their decades of tireless activism led to the monumental achievement of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, adopted by the UN in 2017 and which is now supported by half of the world’s nations.
Sadly, the leaders of today’s nuclear powers do not recognise the urgent message of the hibakusha: that nuclear weapons and humanity cannot coexist. Indeed, the only policy the shambolic UK government can commit to is one of obscene nuclear militarism, with ambitions for more nuclear warheads, submarines and nuclear-capable fighter jets.
The incalculable and intergenerational human cost of such weapons is completely lost on our leadership, who have ignored the plight of nuclear victims, even including their own citizens. That is why, on the 80th anniversary of the first nuclear bombings, the people of Scotland must amplify the message of the hibakusha – that there must be no more nuclear victims, and that the only way to ensure this is to abolish nuclear weapons once and for all.
On the year of this momentous 80th anniversary, local SCND groups across the country are hosting their own public vigils which we encourage our members and supporters to join. You can see our programme of currently announced events and vigils below.
These include the formal launch of the Peace Garden at the Glasgow Botanics at 11am on the 6th of August, the fruit of excellent campaigning efforts by Glasgow CND in collaboration with Glasgow City Council. Edinburgh CND will also be holding a vigil on Princes Street at 5pm on the 6th of August (contact edinburghcnd@yahoo.com for more details). CND North-East Scotland will be running a film screening at the Aberdeen Social Centre at 8pm on Friday 8th of August.
Scottish CND have two events organised: firstly, on the evening of the 6th of August we are hosting a film screening at Glasgow’s Quaker Meeting House at 7pm. We will be showing a series of short films including one about the first nuclear bombings as well as the legacy of nuclear harms since 1945. You can secure your attendance with a small donation through the link above!
We will also be holding a vigil at the north gate of Faslane Naval Base on Saturday the 9th of August – the day of the Nagasaki nuclear bombing. We warmly invite those of our supporters who can travel independently to join us at Faslane and express our opposition to the nuclear occupation of Scotland, 80 years into the nightmare of worldwide nuclearism.
We welcome any enquiries about the August commemorations. Local groups who are hosting their own vigils are encouraged to contact campaigns@banthebomb.org so that we can help promote their own commemorations!