65 Years After Hiroshima: Time to Retire Nuclear Weapons
Today marks the 65th anniversary of the first use of nuclear weapons in battle at Hiroshima, Japan. For the first time, the U.S. has sent a representative to take part in the ceremony commemorating the 140,000 lives lost. Ambassador John Roos said he hoped this year's event would boost denuclearization around the world. In total, 74 nations were represented today in Hiroshima, where a crowd of 55,000 observed a moment of silence at 8:15 AM when the bomb was dropped.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon was also present, making him the first Secretary General to take part in the ceremony. Ban said, "Life is short, but memory is long. For many of you, that day endures... as vivid as the white light that seared the sky, as dark as the black rains that followed."
Ploughshares Fund grantees like Tri Valley CAREs also held events to commemorate Hiroshima. Tri Valley CAREs invited supporters in Northern California to gather outside Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Laboratory to observe a moment of silence and to pledge "never again."
65 years later, we are reminded of the horrific consequences of using nuclear weapons. Today, nuclear weapons remain the greatest threat to mankind. However, events in the last year such as the signing the New START treaty, the first-ever Nuclear Security Summit, and the U.S. revealing its stockpile numbers bring hope that the nuclear threat can be reduced, and eventually eliminated.
As Ban Ki Moon said today: "Together, we are on a journey from ground zero to global zero -- a world free of weapons of mass destruction. That is the only sane path to a safer world. For as long as nuclear weapons exist, we will live under a nuclear shadow."
For full coverage of the ceremony in Hiroshima, see the following articles:
