The scale of the disaster
that overtook the residents of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki in August 1945 is still difficult
to fathom. The figures of 170,000-246,000
killed outright and thousands affected by
the ongoing, insidious legacy of the cancers
and genetic mutations
passed through the generations do not really
do justice to the actual experience of what
it was like in the cities on the days of
their destruction.
For this we turn to
the testimonies of those who were there
and who, in many cases, have devoted their
lives to telling their stories and demanding
global peace and the elimination of these
weapons of mass murder.
Their testimonies are
horrific and draw a picture of unspeakable
human suffering that have a profound, personal
impact. They include the stories of Taniguci
Sumiteru, Sakue Shimohira and the streetcar
survivors of Hiroshima.
Greenpeace is marking
this year's anniversary, with our Israeli
office using the occasion both to remember
the suffering of the victims of the atomic
bombings and to push for a Middle East free
of weapons of mass destruction.
Depressingly, this anniversary
finds the world still menaced by around
22,000 nuclear warheads. Global human annihilation
remains only 15 minutes away in the event
of an errant flock of geese or missile test…
again being mistaken for an incoming nuclear
strike.
This as global nuclear
disarmament efforts are being undermined
by the pressing proliferation risks of civil
nuclear programs, fired by countries pushing
technology for building new reactors all
over the world.
It is impossible to
ring-fence energy and research reactors
in a manner that ensures that technologies
and materials are not transferred to weapons
programs and the existing non-proliferation
regime is grossly inadequate for the task
of policing the few strictures currently
in place.
This, and the persistent
dangers of nuclear accidents and waste,
is why Greenpeace fights strongly both for
total nuclear disarmament and the replacement
of nuclear generation by clean, cost-effective
renewable energy development.
Streetcar survivor Eiko
Taoka speaks of her one-year old son:
"He had been standing
by the window and I think fragments of glass
had pierced his head. His face was a mess
because of the blood flowing from his head.
But he looked at my face and smiled. His
smile has remained glued in my memory.
He did not comprehend
what had happened. And so he looked at me
and smiled at my face which was all bloody.
I had plenty of milk which he drank all
throughout that day. I think my child sucked
the poison right out of my body. And soon
after that he died. Yes, I think that he
died for me."
