Tuesday, 5 August 2025
Remembering the Hiroshima
and Nagasaki bombings
On Saturday 9th August 2025 at 2.00pm, Calder Valley CND for Peace & Justice will be assembling by the Packhorse Bridge in Hebden Bridge to commemorate the anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Through poetry, readings, song and relflection, local residents will be remembering those who died and those who still suffer from radiation poisoning when the nuclear bombs were dropped 80 years ago on 6th and 9th August 1945.
Remembering the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing, August 2021
As Hiroshima survivor Hayashi Yuriko has said, "The atomic bomb not only took many lives but it also irreversibly damaged the spirits of the tens of thousands of survivors it left in its wake who were met with an unquantifiable hell and who, even to this day, are forced to live throuth tragedy after tragedy. Some believe that 'nuclear weapons are what preserve international harmony'. To them I offer the following counter-argument: 'Nuclear weapons and humanity cannot coexist'. Nuclear weapons are an absolute evil."
In that spirit, Calder Valley CND for Peace & Justice will be gathering to ensure that the lessons of yesterday are taken seriously by the leaders of today.
Of the world's nuclear weapon states, the United Kingdom is the third largest spender on nuclear weapons and remains absent from the list of nations which have endorsed the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. In disregard of global moves towards peace, not only has it committed to increasing the country's warhead stockpile by 40% but there are moves to station US nuclear weapons back on British soil.
Nagasaki Day 2015
Kathy Pitt, of Hebden Bridge, says, "This is an issue close to the hearts of many of us in the Calder Valley. Hebden Royd Town Council, Todmorden Town Council and Blackshaw Parish Council have all passed motions of support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – this is a chance for us to reflect on why our campaign is so important for all of humanity."
The text of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was agreed by the majority of the world's countries in 2017. It will outlaw the production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons in the same way as the existing international treaties on chemical and biological weapons. The treaty entered international law on 22nd January 2021 but the UK Government (which has boycotted negotiations) has stated that it will neither sign nor recognise the treaty.
Previously, on the HebWeb
Remembering the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings (2022)
Commemoration of Hiroshima & Nagasaki nuclear massacres (2019)
Nagasaki atomic bombing remembered (2015)