Memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki urge us to eliminate nuclear weapons by IFRC, ICRC, agencies 5:23pm 6th Aug, 2015   06 August 2015    People in Hiroshima on Thursday are marking the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city. About 55,000 people packed Peace Memorial Park for the annual ceremony. Aging survivors of the atomic bomb, known as hibakusha, were among them.    Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui placed a list of over 297,000 victims of the bombing inside a cenotaph. The list includes the names of more than 5,300 people who died or whose deaths as a result of the bombing were confirmed in the past year.    The crowd observed a minute of silence at 8:15 AM -- the exact time the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6th, 1945.    Mayor Matsui read out a peace declaration. He called nuclear weapons “an absolute evil" and “ultimate inhumanity." Matsui said now is the time to start taking action to abolish them.    Hiroshima/Nagasaki atomic blasts still echo, 70 years on. (IFRC, ICRC)    Memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki urge us to eliminate nuclear weapons, write Tadateru Konoe, President, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and Peter Maurer, President, International Committee of the Red Cross.    Consider a shocking reality: today, 70 years after the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Red Cross hospitals are still treating thousands of survivors for the after-effects of radiation and nearly two-thirds of deaths among them are due to cancer.    Yet the two nuclear bombs which caused such untold human suffering and devastation were small compared to most of the bombs in the arsenals of nuclear-armed States today.    What more compelling argument could there be, therefore, for the international community to redouble its failing efforts to secure a timetable to prohibit the use of and ensure the complete elimination of nuclear weapons? Before it is too late.    The horror that inhabitants of these two cities felt as loved ones were incinerated and the injured searched in vain for medical care makes this anniversary a deeply emotional event in itself.    The continued incidence of leukemia and other cancers and the lingering concerns about the impact of potential genetic damage on children whose parents were exposed to radiation make this still a commemoration fraught with pain and anxiety.    The fact that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were able to rebuild and revitalise themselves, and the fact that the people of these cities have passionately advocated for the abolition of nuclear weapons, are both powerful symbols of human resilience.    What makes the commemoration all the more poignant is the timing. It comes just months after a Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons failed to achieve progress towards the elimination of nuclear weapons.    This outcome was deeply disappointing. But we owe it both to the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the hundreds of thousands who lost their lives not to give up.    We in the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement will continue our work to raise awareness of the horrific human costs of nuclear weapons and to urge all States to ensure that these weapons are never again used.    Governments must also pursue negotiations to prohibit the use of and completely eliminate nuclear weapons through a legally binding international agreement.    Seventy years after they were used, it is time to finally bring an end to the era of nuclear weapons. The lingering humanitarian aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should remind us all of what is at stake and galvanise our action. Completely ridding the world of nuclear weapons is a humanitarian imperative and it is the only way forward.    Hiroshima/Nagasaki atomic blasts still echo, 70 years on.(IFRC/ICRC)    Seventy years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japanese Red Cross Society hospitals are still treating thousands of survivors for long-term health effects, with nearly two-thirds of deaths among them due to cancer.    "Even after so many decades, we continue to see the catastrophic health impact from the use of nuclear weapons on these two cities," said ICRC President Peter Maurer. "What more compelling argument could there be for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, especially as most of the bombs in the arsenals of nuclear armed states today are more powerful and destructive?"    "This commemoration is a reminder of the indiscriminate humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons," said Tadateru Konoé, the President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies who is representing the Movement at Peace Memorial Ceremonies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "It is a reminder that these consequences travel across space and time and that, once unleashed, they can never be contained."    In the year last year alone, the Japanese Red Cross Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Hospitals treated 4,657 and 6,030 survivors respectively.    Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of atomic bomb survivor deaths in the hospital through March 2014 were attributed to cancers of which the primary types were lung cancer (20 per cent), stomach cancer (18 per cent), liver cancer (14 per cent), leukemia (8 per cent), intestinal cancer (7 per cent) and malignant lymphoma (6 per cent). Over this period, more than half of all deaths at the Nagasaki Red Cross hospital (56 per cent) were due to cancer.    The Japanese Red Cross Society has run hospitals for atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima since 1956 and in Nagasaki since 1969. The hospitals have together handled more than 2.5 million outpatient visits by atomic bomb survivors and more than 2.6 million admissions of survivors as inpatients.    http://www.icrc.org/en/hiroshima-nagasaki    29 April 2015    Austria, backed by 159 nations, calls for ban on nuclear weapons.(Reuters)    Austria on Tuesday called for banning nuclear weapons because of their catastrophic humanitarian effects, an initiative it said now has the backing of 159 countries.    Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz speaking at the five-year review conference of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT): "The only way to guarantee that nuclear weapons will never be used again is through their total elimination," Kurz told the 191 parties to the treaty, the world"s benchmark arms control accord.    "All states share the responsibility to prevent the use of nuclear weapons."    Diplomats from the 159 countries supporting the ban, said the initiative was modeled on successful campaigns to ban land mines and other weapons and could take years to move forward.    The initiative has little support among nuclear weapons states and veto-wielding Security Council members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China. But most of the 193 U.N. members back it.    The five permanent Security Council members signed the NPT as nuclear weapons states, although the pact calls on them to negotiate the reduction and eventual elimination of their arms caches. Non-nuclear states complain that there have been too few steps toward nuclear disarmament.    http://www.un.org/en/conf/npt/2015/ http://www.sipri.org/research/disarmament/nuclear/npt-review-2015 http://www.icanw.org/    * NHK, the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation has been producing programs about the devastation caused by the atomic bombings for a number of years and the issues between nuclear arms and peace as the public broadcasting station of an atomic-bombed nation, visit the archive: http://www.nhk.or.jp/peace/english/library/index.html http://www.nhk.or.jp/peace/english/index.html http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/link/linke.html# Visit the related web page
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