Hiroshima Day gathering in Alexandra Park (photo: Stewart Rayment).

War in Ukraine heightens relevance of Hiroshima Day

For the first time since the Cold War ended, the annual Hiroshima Day event last weekend took place against the background of a war in Europe that has the potential of escalating into nuclear conflagration. John Enefer of Hastings Against War, which organises the event, reports.

With fears that the war in Ukraine could spiral into nuclear conflict, Saturday 6 August saw a timely commemoration of those who lost their lives as a result of the only occasions in history when nuclear weapons have been unleashed in war. The annual Hiroshima Day event in Alexandra Park remembered those who died as a result of the attacks by the US air force on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

An estimated 185,000 people died as a consequence of the bombs dropped on 6 and 9 August 1945(1). Those who lost their lives did so as a result of fire, intense heat, collapsing buildings and radiation sickness caused by the blasts.

The bombings occurred in the last stage of World War Two and the standard justification of the attacks has always been that they were essential to defeat Japan, that without the ‘A’ bombs being deployed Japan would never have surrendered and the war would have continued.

Photo: Mark Bishop

This view was disputed in an exhaustive study which the US Government itself launched. The Strategic Bombing Survey concluded that ‘it is the survey’s opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and, in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated(2).’

Britain’s war-time leader Winston Churchill – although he didn’t oppose the use of the bombs – wrote in the last volume of his history of WW2 that, ‘It would be a mistake to suppose that the fate of Japan was settled by the atomic bomb. Her defeat was certain before the first bomb fell’ (Triumph and Tragedy, p559, Cassell, 1954).

HBC motion

At the Alexandra Park ceremony the guest speakers were Hastings Borough Cllrs Margi O’Callaghan and Nigel Sinden. Margi O’Callaghan, also deputy mayor, said she was proud to have worked with Cllr Maya Evans on getting a motion passed in Council in 2020 which endorsed the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The treaty makes nuclear weapons illegal under international law. In backing the treaty Hastings joined other municipalities around the world including Paris, Berlin, Edinburgh and Philadelphia.

Margi said it was important to remember the atomic bombings because if the memory is kept alive it makes it less likely such devastation will be repeated.

Cllr Nigel Sinden was one of those who addressed the gathering (photo: Stewart Rayment).

Nigel Sinden spoke about the bombing of Nagasaki. He observed that the bomb was dropped above a valley in the port city. This had the effect of increasing the devastation in that confined area. He said that the Americans, having already used a uranium Atomic bomb on Hiroshima, wanted to test a plutonium ‘A’ bomb and that Nagasaki was, in effect, the testing ground for this devastating new explosive.

In past years the ceremony in Hastings has involved launching traditional Japanese floating lanterns on the main lake in Alexandra Park but increased restrictions over the last two years have seen the lanterns being placed round the edge of the water, becoming more conspicuous after sunset. This year hundreds of electric candles were placed with the lanterns to encircle the lake.

The event was organised by Hastings Against War, a group which has been active since 2003. For more details write to info@hastingsagainstwar.org.

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