Hiroshima Day

Adapted from Sussex Express website
Published Date: 26 August 2010

No nuclear bombs, say residents
at Hiroshima event

THE RAIN cut short an anti-nuclear activists annual memorial in Hailsham, which marks the anniversary of the first use of a nuclear bomb on people – seeing them hold a second event a few days later remembering Nagasaki.

Because of the weather, Hiroshima Day, on Friday August 6, saw a reduced number of people attending the memorial, which marked the 65th anniversary of the devastating attack, held at Hailsham's Common Pond.

They held a short vigil with readings, but were unable to light candles and lanterns, which is usually part of the ceremony.

Instead just three days later, on Monday, August 9, they gathered again to mark the anniversary of the second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

Activists said in many ways this was the real opening of the nuclear age because the devastation of Nagasaki was triggered by a more complex bomb with plutonium, rather than a uranium core.

Multi-coloured lanterns were floated on the pond in memory of the numbers of civilian victims killed and injured by the attacks.
The group said they also represented the growing demand for a world free from the menace of nuclear weapons.

This month sees the launch, piloted in Sussex, of a new global campaign for citizens to sign Affirmations stating their conviction that any use of nuclear weapons would be a War Crime and a Crime Against Humanity.

Our Commemoration of Hiroshima
Last Year ...

.... And this Year

Hiroshima Memorial to mark the anniversary of the dropping of the first atom bomb in 1945
9 p.m.Saturday 6th August 2011

Meet us at dusk at Hailsham Common Pond to float peace candles for a nuclear-free future: and to remember the first victims of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima sixty five years ago.