JAPANESE peace campaigners have written to US President Donald Trump urging him to declare the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings a war crime.
A copy of the letter from the Society for Requiring the Admission of Historic Responsibility of the US Government for Dropping Atomic Bombs on Japan, dated today was sent to the Morning Star.
“This indiscriminate mass killing should not be forgiven, because it was a crime against humanity,” it read, pointing to the 340,000 deaths from the bombings on August 6 and 9 in 1945.
But Washington continues to justify the atrocities “with the excuse that they hastened the end of the protracted war” and saved lives.
The group said that former US president Harry Truman’s claim after ordering the bombing that a million US troops would have died invading Japan was “false.”
It said General Douglas MacArthur and other commanders estimated a maximum of 66,000 casualties, a quarter of them fatal.
THOUSANDS of people will join commemorations tomorrow marking 72 years since the US slaughtered 200,000 people by dropping a nuclear bombs on Japan’s Hiroshima — followed by Nagasaki on August 9.
Anti-nuclear campaign group CND general secretary Kate Hudson said the annual commemoration showed that “we have not forgotten those who died as a result of the nuclear attacks and we are working to ensure it never happens again.
“On this poignant anniversary, we must reaffirm our determination to campaign for a world without nuclear weapons — 122 countries recently voted for a UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons but the British government is boycotting the process.
“We should remember what the effects of a nuclear bomb are and realise the only way to stop another detonation — by accident or design — is by getting rid of all of them.
“The government should sign the global nuclear weapons ban and scrap Trident immediately.”
Dozens of events will be taking place across the country, with a rally in Tavistock Square in London where people will lay flowers at the Hiroshima cheery tree at noon.
Guest speakers include Labour MP Catherine West and Buddhist monk Reverend Gyoro Nagase, who will be joined by grime rapper and community organiser Potent Whisper.
Candle-lighting, poetry readings, peace picnics and a number of family activities will take place in Sheffield, Edinburgh, Manchester and other parts of the country.
The Remembering Hiroshima film festival at Sands Film Studio in Rotherhithe will also continue until August 8, showing historical documentaries and TV archives.
British peace campaigners’ events link up activists worldwide
PEACE campaigners gathered in Britain and worldwide yesterday to commemorate one of the world’s worst war atrocities, the dropping of an atomic bomb by the US on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
Close to the end of WWII the US government chose to test its new invention on civilian cities despite the inevitability of Japan’s military defeat.
The Hiroshima blast killed 66,000 people immediately, many of whom were vaporised by the intense heat.
Tens of thousands more died later from cancers and other long-term effects of radiation. Three days later the US compounded its crime by dropping a second nuclear bomb on the city of Nagasaki.
The Hiroshima commemorations took place internationally yesterday, with more than 20 in Britain.
At many gatherings a declaration was read out from former mayor of Hiroshima Tadatoshi Akiba, who has become known internationally for his peace campaigning and his opposition to nuclear weapons.
This year’s statement included an appeal to the government of Japan to maintain his country’s commitment to pacifism included in the constitution drawn up after Japan’s defeat.
Mr Tadatoshi heads the worldwide Mayors for Peace group, to which 7,400 town and city mayors are affiliated around the world.
Among them is Jonathan Timbers, the mayor of Hebden Royd in West Yorkshire.
Councillor Timbers read the proclamation sent from Hiroshima at a commemoration held next to Hebden Water in the Pennine town of Hebden Bridge. The memorial event was organised by Calder Valley CND and Calder Valley Peace and Justice Campaign.
Campaigner Jenny Sheppard read an affirmation which was also read out at other commemorations. It concluded: “Before us today are set life and death. We choose life that we and those that come after us may live. Let it be so.”
Ceremonies also included a two-minute silence.
The commemorations came two weeks after 122 states at the United Nations voted to ban nuclear weapons, classifying them alongside chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, which are already illegal.
The world’s nuclear armed countries, including Britain and the Unites States, boycotted the vote.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Reblogged this on WENEZIA™ – Weidens neue Mitte!.
LikeLike
Saturday 27th May 2017
posted by Morning Star in World
JAPANESE peace campaigners have written to US President Donald Trump urging him to declare the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings a war crime.
A copy of the letter from the Society for Requiring the Admission of Historic Responsibility of the US Government for Dropping Atomic Bombs on Japan, dated today was sent to the Morning Star.
“This indiscriminate mass killing should not be forgiven, because it was a crime against humanity,” it read, pointing to the 340,000 deaths from the bombings on August 6 and 9 in 1945.
But Washington continues to justify the atrocities “with the excuse that they hastened the end of the protracted war” and saved lives.
The group said that former US president Harry Truman’s claim after ordering the bombing that a million US troops would have died invading Japan was “false.”
It said General Douglas MacArthur and other commanders estimated a maximum of 66,000 casualties, a quarter of them fatal.
https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-c4f7-Japan-Trump-must-declare-Hiroshima-a-war-crime#.WSstmdykIdU
LikeLike
Pingback: Trump’s war for profits in Afghanistan | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Saturday 5th August 2017
posted by Morning Star in Britain
by Felicity Collier
THOUSANDS of people will join commemorations tomorrow marking 72 years since the US slaughtered 200,000 people by dropping a nuclear bombs on Japan’s Hiroshima — followed by Nagasaki on August 9.
Anti-nuclear campaign group CND general secretary Kate Hudson said the annual commemoration showed that “we have not forgotten those who died as a result of the nuclear attacks and we are working to ensure it never happens again.
“On this poignant anniversary, we must reaffirm our determination to campaign for a world without nuclear weapons — 122 countries recently voted for a UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons but the British government is boycotting the process.
“We should remember what the effects of a nuclear bomb are and realise the only way to stop another detonation — by accident or design — is by getting rid of all of them.
“The government should sign the global nuclear weapons ban and scrap Trident immediately.”
Dozens of events will be taking place across the country, with a rally in Tavistock Square in London where people will lay flowers at the Hiroshima cheery tree at noon.
Guest speakers include Labour MP Catherine West and Buddhist monk Reverend Gyoro Nagase, who will be joined by grime rapper and community organiser Potent Whisper.
Candle-lighting, poetry readings, peace picnics and a number of family activities will take place in Sheffield, Edinburgh, Manchester and other parts of the country.
The Remembering Hiroshima film festival at Sands Film Studio in Rotherhithe will also continue until August 8, showing historical documentaries and TV archives.
http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-9764-72-years-on-Britain-marks-anniversary-of-Hiroshima-bomb#.WYXUE1FpwdU
LikeLike
Monday 7th August 2017
posted by Peter Lazenby in Britain
British peace campaigners’ events link up activists worldwide
PEACE campaigners gathered in Britain and worldwide yesterday to commemorate one of the world’s worst war atrocities, the dropping of an atomic bomb by the US on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
Close to the end of WWII the US government chose to test its new invention on civilian cities despite the inevitability of Japan’s military defeat.
The Hiroshima blast killed 66,000 people immediately, many of whom were vaporised by the intense heat.
Tens of thousands more died later from cancers and other long-term effects of radiation. Three days later the US compounded its crime by dropping a second nuclear bomb on the city of Nagasaki.
The Hiroshima commemorations took place internationally yesterday, with more than 20 in Britain.
At many gatherings a declaration was read out from former mayor of Hiroshima Tadatoshi Akiba, who has become known internationally for his peace campaigning and his opposition to nuclear weapons.
This year’s statement included an appeal to the government of Japan to maintain his country’s commitment to pacifism included in the constitution drawn up after Japan’s defeat.
Mr Tadatoshi heads the worldwide Mayors for Peace group, to which 7,400 town and city mayors are affiliated around the world.
Among them is Jonathan Timbers, the mayor of Hebden Royd in West Yorkshire.
Councillor Timbers read the proclamation sent from Hiroshima at a commemoration held next to Hebden Water in the Pennine town of Hebden Bridge. The memorial event was organised by Calder Valley CND and Calder Valley Peace and Justice Campaign.
Campaigner Jenny Sheppard read an affirmation which was also read out at other commemorations. It concluded: “Before us today are set life and death. We choose life that we and those that come after us may live. Let it be so.”
Ceremonies also included a two-minute silence.
The commemorations came two weeks after 122 states at the United Nations voted to ban nuclear weapons, classifying them alongside chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, which are already illegal.
The world’s nuclear armed countries, including Britain and the Unites States, boycotted the vote.
http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-5d75-In-memory-of-WWII-nuclear-blast-horror#.WYgmh1FpwdU
LikeLike
Pingback: Fossil baleen whale discovery in Japan | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons wins Nobel Peace Prize | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Fukushima disaster making Japanese monkeys ill | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: ‘Ban nuclear weapons now’ | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Forests, tree-dwelling birds extinct with dinosaurs | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Italy’s new government, anti-worker, pro-war | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: German conservatives want nuclear weapons | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Nuclear weapons, from Hiroshima to Trump | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: German secret service-AfD neofascists collusion | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Stop war between nuclear armed India, Pakistan! | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: World War II started 80 years ago | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: British cartoonist Dave Brown wil vote Labour | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Trump attacks Medicaid for more nuclear weapons | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: India-Pakistan nuclear war would be world catastrophe | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Peace, not another Hiroshima | Dear Kitty. Some blog