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Letter: Information picket on atomic bomb peril

This bomb destroyed the innermost portion of Nagasaki; between 60,000 and 80,000 persons were killed
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Information picket on atomic bomb peril

On Aug. 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. The bombing of Nagasaki three days later on Aug. 9 caught refugees who had fled from Hiroshima. This bomb destroyed the innermost portion of Nagasaki; between 60,000 and 80,000 persons were killed. Exact figures are difficult, however, for many records were destroyed by the bomb and the overall devastation of the area made accurate accounting for casualties impossible.

People here at the time were told this was vital to ending the war and preventing loss of American lives in a ground invasion of Japan. This was false and ultimately many historians agree that the event was an experiment to determine the effectiveness of atomic weapons in use over a densely populated urban area. The brutality is unimaginable. And yet someone imagined it.

It seems a long time ago and as the years have passed, we have ceased acknowledgement. Once we stood together to mourn and bitterly recall this incident as a terrifying example of the end game militarists and weapons manufacturers have conceived for us all. If we let them, our leaders will hold this monstrous threat over our heads — over all the people of the world — and force us to live in fear. The grasping demands of the weapons dealers steal the wealth of the world, wealth that could be managed to meet all our needs for a graceful life. What a waste!

As long as these actual weapons of mass destruction exist, freedom and equality will elude us. And in the end, our thoughtless rulers will find a reason to use these horrifying weapons.

It is a day to remember the tragic loss of life and destruction of these cities and the whole area around them.

It is a day to strengthen our resolve to live no more with this peril.

The Freedom from War Coalition will be holding an information picket in Charles Hoey Park in downtown Duncan next to the train station on Saturday, Aug. 6 starting at 11 a.m. We hope you will drop by and chat and maybe make an origami crane or two to remember those who died in Japan all those decades ago.

We are not secure, but we can be if we fight for the better world we know is possible.

Eden Haythornthwaite

Duncan