Lancaster campaigners mark Nagasaki atomic bomb anniversary

Members and supporters of South Lakeland and Lancaster District Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (SL&LDCND) kept a minute's silence for the 340,000 children, women and men who died as a result of the atomic bombs dropped in 1945 and all victims of war, and shared readings calling for a world free from nuclear weapons.

City councillors Mandy Bannon and Gina Dowding attended the event.

Coun Bannon said: "In January this year, Lancaster City Council supported my motion to write to our Government, urging it to sign up to the United Nation's Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which had come into force a week before.

"The nuclear arms race remains a real threat to human civilisation and the planet. The dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in the deaths of over 300, 000 people.

"We need to remember that devastating loss and ensure that events like those are never repeated again."

The campaigners added water to a camellia which peace campaigners in Japan had sent to the group, which had been potted at the vigil held in Kendal on Friday evening.

They then scattered flowers and petals on the River Lune in memory of victims of war.

Philip Gilligan, on behalf of the group, said: "The seed sent to us by our friends in Hiroshima is descended directly from camellia bushes which survived the blast, fireball and radioactivity which killed so many people in 1945.

"The group will cherish it as a symbol of worldwide resistance to nuclear weapons.

"In 2021, campaigning for a future free from the threat of nuclear warfare is more urgent than ever. In our own country, instead of endorsing the opportunities for a safer and more peaceful world which are inherent in the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the Government is intent on replacing and upgrading the Trident nuclear weapons system, widening the

circumstances in which the UK's nuclear weapons could be used and increasing the size of this lethal arsenal by a staggering 40 per cent.

"Policies like these increase the risk of repeating the horrors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. They must be resisted by us all."