By Junichi Sato*
6 August 2015 – The fight against nuclear is steeped in Greenpeace history. On the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombings we’re reminded of the consequences of nuclear energy and the people’s movement to campaign for nuclear disarmament to create a safer and sustainable future for the people of Japan and the world.
Seventy years ago, the world’s first atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, creating a “mushroom cloud” and killing more than 450,000 people.
The horror of these bombings has been an eternal memory for survivors, imprinted on the consciousness of people around the world, and a reminder of holding the further use of nuclear weapons in warfare at bay.
Fast-forward to 2011 when a tsunami, triggered by a magnitude earthquake measuring 9.0 rocked the northern part of Japan, resulting in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
No War Demonstration in Japan. 8 Mar, 2003 © Greenpeace / Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert