[pr-x] 75th anniversary of Hiroshima & Nagasaki - Vancouver rally, 4 pm, Sunday, August 9

[Kimball Cariou]

The Vancouver Peace Council (an affiliate of the Canadian Peace 
Congress) invites all our friends and supporters to take part with the 
Just Peace Committee and other anti-war organizations in a commemoration 
of the 75th anniversary of the US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

When: Sunday, August 9, 4 pm

Where: Peace Flame Park (south end of Burrard Street Bridge)

*
*

*On the enduring significance of Hiroshima after 75 years*

*/A message from the Canadian Peace Congress/*

Seventy-five years ago, an act of international criminality and infamy 
took place, the consequences of which have posed an existential threat 
to humanity ever since. For the first time ever, a species had created 
the capacity to not only bring about its own extinction, but also to 
potentially threaten all life on our planet.

On August 6 and 9, 1945, the U.S. military bombed the cities of 
Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons. Over 200,000 people, mostly 
civilians, died instantly or later succumbed from burns, malnutrition, 
and radiation-related illnesses, and their cities levelled to the 
ground. Many of their descendants carry the affected genes and pass them 
onto their children. Those notorious acts will forever be remembered as 
the first time the devastating impact of nuclear warfare was unleashed.

There was absolutely no justification for this wanton attack – the worst 
/crime against humanity/ in history (paralleled only by the Holocaust). 
Unclassified documents have since confirmed that there was no truth to 
the constructed ‘myth’ that the atomic attack was necessary to spare the 
lives of U.S. servicemen and end the war. In fact, Imperial Japan was 
already on the verge of collapse and surrender by early August 1945, its 
industries and war-making capacities destroyed or exhausted by repeated 
conventional air raids.

We now know that the U.S. Truman Administration proceeded with the 
nuclear attack anyway because it was anxious to unveil its awesome new 
weaponry while it still could, thus ‘showcasing’ U.S. global military 
superiority in the post-war period. It is now known, for instance, that 
the Targeting Committee of the U.S. military’s “Manhattan Project” 
specifically chose the two cities – Hiroshima and Nagasaki – not because 
they were important military centres, but rather because these two 
cities had been scarcely bombed by conventional air raids, so it would 
be easier to document the full destructive power of the atomic blasts, 
and to monitor the number of ‘kills’ among the largely civilian 
populations of those urban centres. The callousness and racially-tinged 
inhumanity of such calculations is undeniable.

More specifically, the U.S. nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 
were intended to send an unmistakable message to the Soviet Union – its 
erstwhile ally during WWII – that U.S. imperialism, with its monopoly on 
nuclear weaponry, would be top dog and ‘world policeman’ in the post-war 
era. Most history books claim the opening salvo of the “cold war” which 
was to dominate international politics and spur the nuclear arms race 
for the next half-century was launched by Winston Churchill in his “Iron 
Curtain” speech in Fulton, Missouri in March 1946. But there is every 
reason to conclude that it actually came seven months earlier, in Hiroshima.

____________________

75 years later, those nuclear weapons arsenals remain the principle 
threat – a sword of Damocles – hanging over the heads of all humanity 
and our global environment. Despite the hopes and demands of the world’s 
people for the complete elimination of /all/ nuclear stockpiles, 
disarmament talks remain stalled and important treaties, such as the 
Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) and the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) 
treaties, and the Iranian nuclear deal (JCPOA) have been unilaterally 
cancelled by Washington, setting the stage for another devastating round 
of the arms race.

Instead the leading nuclear states – in the first place, U.S. 
imperialism – are pressing forward with plans to modernize nuclear 
arsenals and extend the arms race into outer space (in the form of the 
Ballistic Missile Defence system and Trump’s “Space Command”). For this 
reason, the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki assumes even 
greater significance and urgency this year.

This is especially so because we can all see another ‘cold war’ – this 
time directed against the People’s Republic of China – looming on the 
horizon. Actually, it is already here, and is being ratcheted up daily 
by the U.S. Administration and its Western allies, including Canada. The 
last ‘cold war’ had devastating effects. Not only did it bring humanity 
to the brink of mutually assured destruction, and consume trillions of 
dollars (in today’s currency) on arms spending instead of peaceful 
development and the elimination of poverty, homelessness, illiteracy and 
social inequality. It also led to witch-hunts, fostered xenophobia and 
racism, and suppressed academic freedom and the right to dissent.

For the sake of the future of humanity and our environment, we must not 
allow fear-mongering and McCarthyism to gain the upper hand again.

We are not powerless in the face of this alarming drift toward nuclear 
calamity and environmental devastation. We need to take mass action to 
demand Canada take a firm stand promoting peace, disarmament, mutual 
respect and understanding, rejecting militarism, aggression and war.

For starters, we must demand that Canada sign and ratify the Treaty on 
the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). And we must call for a 
massive cut in arms spending, for Canada’s withdrawal from the 
aggressive NATO military alliance, and for full respect for – and 
compliance with – the principles of the UN Charter and international law

The real challenge is to re-build a grassroots peace constituency in 
this country made up of working people, women, youth, indigenous 
peoples, those living below the poverty line, the homeless and 
disenfranchised, environmental and social activists and all who cherish 
peace. One that is powerful and united around a “/Peace Alternative/” 
that would take our country in a fundamentally different direction, and 
win a truly independent Canadian foreign policy based on disarmament and 
peace.

That is the best way to remember and pay tribute to the victims of 
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to all victims of economic and military 
aggression, occupation and war!

___________________

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more 
violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in 
the opposite direction. The splitting of the atom has changed everything 
except the way we think. Thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe. 
We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is 
to survive.” – /*Albert Einstein.*/

**

*_____________________*

*Canadian Peace Congress*
PO Box 73593 Wychwood PO,
Toronto, ON M6C 4A7
Canada
/info at canadianpeacecongress.ca 
<mailto:info at canadianpeacecongress.ca>https://www.canadianpeacecongress.ca/ /
/https://www.facebook.com/CanadianPeaceCongress//

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