Scotland remembers Hiroshima and Nagasaki

#nomorehiroshimas Seventy years ago today the first atomic bomb was dropped by the US aircraft Enola Gay on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, with a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later.

The impact was truly devastating, killing at least 70,000 instantly in Hiroshima, and tens of thousands more through radiation sickness. It has had immense long term repercussions on the health of survivors and for the future of life on earth.

The New Yorker magazine’s renowned report by John Hersey, described vividly, in 1946, what happened in Hiroshima and afterwards through the eyes of six survivors.

UNISON Scotland stands strong with people around the world who say ‘Never Again’ and want to see a world free of nuclear weapons.

Our trade union is proud of its longstanding opposition to these immoral weapons of mass destruction.

The trade union movement works with the peace movement, showing recently, in a joint report from the STUC and Scottish CND that Trident is no deterrent and defence diversification could provide productive useful jobs as part of a Just Transition to a low carbon economy.

In our campaigns against austerity we regularly make the point that the cuts we do want to see are the cancellation of Trident and its replacement.

Let’s work to end poverty and inequality and not risk destruction of the planet that is the home for all of us and for future generations.

Events are taking place around Scotland to mark the Hiroshima and Nagasaki anniversaries in Aberdeen, Anstruther, Ayr, Coatbridge, Dunbar, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Helensburgh, Irvine, Kilmarnock, Paisley, Peebles, Rutherglen and Stirling, as detailed on the Scottish CND website.

Let’s remember the dead and work for the living in a peaceful world.