CND will be marking 79 years since the US dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) groups across Britain will start to hold nationwide commemorations from this weekend to mark the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

CND: marking 79 years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki

On Tuesday 6 August, CND general secretary Kate Hudson will attend the annual Hiroshima Day event in Tavistock Square, London, starting at 12pm. She will honour the hundreds of thousands of victims whose lives were cruelly taken in an instant and warn about the heightened nuclear dangers caused by the war in Ukraine and the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.

This year’s commemoration comes as nuclear weapons states surge ahead with modernising and expanding their arsenals. Nuclear proliferation and escalation also remain a major risk: the US is bringing nuclear weapons back to Britain for the first time since 2008; Russia has moved its own nuclear weapons to Belarus, and in some quarters of Europe there is talk of developing Europe’s very own nuclear weapons system.

In the Middle East, the ongoing aggression in Gaza by nuclear-armed Israel has left the entire region teetering on the brink of a wider regional war. CND calls on the British government to take positive action to reduce these tensions and nuclear risks.

‘Such acts of barbarity must never be allowed again’

Hudson said:

CND groups will be gathering across the country to honour the victims of the atrocities that occurred at Hiroshima and Nagasaki 79 years ago, and we invite members of the public to join us at these commemorations.

It is important that we remind ourselves that such acts of barbarity must never be allowed to happen again, and that we must take action to prevent another nuclear catastrophe.

London Region CND chair Carol Turner said:

The world has never been closer to nuclear war. Remembering the victims of the atomic bombing of Japan in 1945 is a sobering reminder of just what nuclear war would mean to people and planet.

Across the country, events are taking place.

Get involved with CND

CND groups organise events to mark the anniversaries of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why not attend your local one to pay your respects, and meet other like-minded people who want a world without these weapons of mass destruction? There is an interactive map with all the events here.

Or, get your town signed up to a nuclear ban. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force in 2021. Countries across the world support this historic agreement which bans nuclear weapons in participating states. Towns and cities around the world – including Washington, Paris, Edinburgh and Manchester – are bypassing their governments’ opposition and becoming Nuclear Ban Communities as they sign up to support the TPNW. Find out how you can campaign to make your area a Nuclear Ban Community here.

CND is a movement that campaigns for a world without nuclear weapons, so that we’ll never see another Hiroshima or Nagasaki again. Join the group here.

Featured image via CND