Monday 8:15am, August 6, 1945, the day when the atomic bomb was first used in war. The city of Hiroshima in Japan was the target. One bomb the equivalent of approximately 20,000 tons of high explosives, fell from the sky, early as everybody in the city was preparing for their daily routine. The result was the immediate deaths of approximately 80,000 people of all ages, and roughly 70% of all buildings completely destroyed and a further 7% severely damaged. By the end of the year the death toll from injuries and radiation, had pushed the total to somewhere between 90,000 and 140,000. In one blinding flash, a city and most of its inhabitants obliterated. That was what war had come to, unbelievable, instant, massive, death and destruction. We should dwell on these figures and scenes as our mad-hatter politicians talk of military action against other countries. It is people just like you and I that they are talking about killing, instantly, or over a period of years, it doesn't matter to them as they sit in their marble halls of power.
To mark the horror of Hiroshima and atomic weapons, the Faslane Peace Camp are asking people to come and join them, to highlight the fact that we in this country still harbour these weapons of mass destruction, right here on the Clyde. Weapons that should never be used, and shouldn't even exist.
To remember the tragic event that happened in Hiroshima on the 6th of August in 1945 we are creating this event as a memorial of remembrance to those affected by it.
At 11 we are going to make an Arc at the Peace Camp Gate. At 5:45 PM we are going to walk to the North Gate Base to have an hours vigil in silence between 6:15 and 7:15.
Just as it gets dark we are also going to go light 200 candles along the fences of the nuclear base.
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