By Douglas Cardoso*
79 years ago, in the middle of the Japanese summer, on a Monday morning in Hiroshima and on a Thursday almost at noon in Nagasaki… citizens of Japan received a nefarious gift upon their heads. The United States of America, one of the countries on the winning side of the Second World War, decided to test its newly developed nuclear power and thus start the so-called cold war where a bipolar world would remain based on mutual threats between the USA and the USSR.
Initially, 80,000 people in Hiroshima and another 75,000 in Nagasaki died immediately. Cities destroyed, people, animals and vegetation contaminated with radiation. In six months, a similar number of deaths occurred as a result of radioactive consequences. Decades later, there were still sick people and places that were uninhabitable or unusable due to those attacks.
We are already in another century, another millennium. And even with treaties on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, several nations persist in developing such artifacts with excuses of self-defense in some cases and imperialist ambitions in others. Even in countries where their advance in the nuclear area is officially focused on energy production, there is always the risk that, in a change of government or regime, they will become yet another nation with atomic military power.
Currently in conflicts such as (Ukraine + NATO) vs Russia and Israel vs Palestinian State, the nuclear specter haunts with its imminent possibility of occurring. North Korea, with its instability in relations with the rest of the world, is also a permanent worrying factor. Iran despite adhering to international treaties till date, as a result of attacks suffered in 2024 by Israel, it is highly possible that it would quickly join the ‘team’ of those with nuclear war heads.
The massacre in Hiroshima and Nagasaki has as its legacy the urgency of dismantling nuclear arsenals in ALL COUNTRIES in the world that are developing projects in this field. Repeating this horrible History is insanity, inconsistent with the human capacity to overcome pain and suffering with the advancement of Science and Justice.
We humanists demand responsibility from national governments to stop the nuclear advance, and for immediate disarmament, today, here and now !
As citizens, we can all do our part:
– participating in creating awareness and protest campaigns against atomic bombs
– promoting in our living spaces, whether at home, work, political, student, communities, the culture of Peace and Non-violence.
– demanding firm and concrete positions, attitudes and actions from our elected representatives in this direction.
I leave here an invitation for you to participate in the Third World March for Peace and Non-violence that will take place from 2nd October, 2024 to 5th January,2025 when a base team will travel to more than one hundred countries promoting actions, debates, manifestos, marches, conferences to raise awareness about the importance of world peace and the exercise of active non-violence in both interpersonal, social and political relationships (national and international).
Since January 2024, various activities have been carried out on the theme of 3WM in several countries.
Look for the team promoting the march in your country and join us.
*Brazilian, humanist, is an activist and member of the 3WM promotional team in Brazil.