From Hiroshima Day commemoration 2018 (photo: HAW).

Hiroshima Day ceremony in Alexandra Park on 6 August

Hastings Against War will hold its annual commemoration of those who lost their lives in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 with a ceremony at the boating lake in Alexandra Park on Tuesday 6 August. Nick Terdre reports.

A short ceremony will be held In Alexandra Park including songs by the local community choir Las Pasionarias. At sunset floating lanterns will be released on the lake in the traditional Japanese style. Everyone is welcome to attend the free event, which begins at 8.30pm, the group says.

An estimated 185,000 people perished after US air force planes dropped atomic bombs on the two Japanese cities – killed by the initial blast, by fires sparked by the bombs or and as a result of radiation-sickness caused by the explosions.

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain the only occasions when nuclear weapons have been used in war, and each year ceremonies are held globally to remember those who lost their lives and insist there is no repeat of such attacks.

Meanwhile progress continues towards achieving a nuclear weapons ban, HAW says. Since a UN treaty banning nuclear weapons was approved by 122 nations two years ago, 70 nations have signed up to it and 23 have ratified it – ratification by 50 nations is required before it can enter into force.

The existence of the treaty is partly the result of the work of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). The efforts of ICAN were acknowledged in the most spectacular fashion in 2017 when the organisation was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

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