Let’s stop making and stockpiling nuclear weapons.
On Aug. 6, 1945, 70 years ago today, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the City of Hiroshima, Japan.
About 70,000 people died as a result of the initial blast, heat, and radiation effects. By the end of 1945, because of the lingering effects of radioactive fallout and other after effects, the Hiroshima death toll was probably more than 100,000. The five-year death toll may have reached or exceeded 200,000 as cancer and other long-term effects occurred.
At a 70th Anniversary ceremony, Kazumi Matsui, mayor of Hiroshima, said that seven decades after the bombing, the proliferation of nuclear weapons posed a growing threat to global security.
“Our world still bristles with more than 15,000 nuclear weapons, and policymakers in the nuclear-armed states remain trapped in provincial thinking, repeating by word and deed their nuclear intimidation,” Matsui said.
“We now know about the many incidents and accidents that have taken us to the brink of nuclear war or nuclear explosions. Today, we worry as well about nuclear terrorism.
“To coexist we must abolish the absolute evil and ultimate inhumanity that are nuclear weapons. Now is the time to start taking action.”
