Peace campaigners mark 70th anniversary of Hiroshima

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group and supporters at Hollingworth Lake on Thursday evening (6 August 2015)

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group gathered at Hollingworth Lake on Thursday night (6 August 2015) to commemorate the dropping of atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945.

On the 70th anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima, by nuclear bombs, members of the peace group read survivors' accounts of the devastation and shared poems and prose which reiterated their commitment to campaigning for peace and disarmament. They observed a minute's silence to remember all who have died in wars and floated lanterns and scattered flower petals on the Lake in memory of the dead.

Philip Gilligan, on behalf of the Peace Group, said: "In 1945, the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused utter devastation. By 1950, over 340,000 people had died as a result and generations were poisoned by radiation. The explosion's effects killed indiscriminately by vaporising human tissue. Many survivors of the initial blast burned to death, while cancers caused by the radiation affected countless others, causing years of misery to both adults and children. That is the effect of a nuclear weapon.

"Seventy years later, in 2015, Britain continues to threaten all our futures with nuclear weapons of mass destruction. 16,000 nuclear weapons threaten the survival of the world. 225 nuclear warheads are based in Britain as part of the Trident system. Each of these bombs has eight times the killing power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

"As we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the bombings, we need to remember what nuclear bombs do and we need to work together to make sure that no-one else suffers such pain and devastation. We need to scrap Trident and begin to finally rid the world of nuclear weapons."