Contributed by Joe Montero

Hiroshima Day, which will be observed in Australia this coming 6 August, commemorates the anniversary of the dropping of a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and another Nagasaki a few days later. These are the only times these terrible bombs Have been used as weapons of mass murder. These acts constitute the greatest crime against humanity in history.

The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

Video from The New York Times

The excuse has always been that this was done to end the war and save lives. It was never explained how killing 125,000 in Hiroshima and 90,000 in Nagasaki be called saving lives. And this is only those who died immediately. It doesn’t count the many more who died later from injuries, radiation sickness, or the children subsequently born with mutations.

Hiroshima: Dropping the Bomb

Video from the BBC Studios

These bombing took place when Japan was on the cusp of defeat and surrender, and their real purpose was to ensuring the Americans were able to colonise Japan, dictate its future politics, and ensure that the Russians and Chinese, who had broken Japan’s military might, didn’t get in. elite that had waged the war and crush the political opposition. Using an electoral process designed to favour them, means this elite, represented by the Liberal Party, has controlled government since.

Hiroshima Day is an occasion where the brutality of empire should be noted, and that humanity must work to end the age of empires to bring about peace and the end of atrocities on a monumental scale.

Rising global tensions and the drive towards war in our time, should make this ambition even more important. There is aa proxy war in Ukraine, the impending expansion of NATO outside Europe, and the return of nuclear capability to the Korean Peninsula. The ultimate goal is the targeting of China.

Image from Codepinc

This drive to war threatens nuclear destruction on a scale that will destroy the world as we know it, and humanity shares the collective responsibility of preventing this from happening. Hiroshima Day is even more important than it was in the past.

Australia is already locked into the United States War machine. Land. Sea and air have been handed over to foreign troops. Our capacity as a nation to make our own choices has been compromised. Pentagon generals have virtual command over our military. Their spy network has just been given an open door to penetrate Australian society, and Australia is being prepared as a giant military base from which to launch war.

Ours is a battle to win our sovereignty at home, and globally, to join the cause for peace, equality between nations, and a world without big powers imposing their dominance on smaller nations. We must fight for a war without nuclear weapons.

The immediate task is to keep on building the peace movement, till it becomes an irresistible force that overwhelms those who want to take us over the precipice.

Taking part in Hiroshima Day is important. Will you be there?

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