BOLTON CND/Stop the War will hold their annual silent vigil in memory of the victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9, 1945. It will be held on Saturday, August 5 from noon to 12.30pm in front of the war memorial in Victoria Square.

We hope that as many people as possible will join us. Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were war crimes because they were terrorist acts aimed at civilians, several hundred thousand of whom were killed or seriously injured immediately, while thousands of others were to die subsequently from the radioactive poison that the bombs released

Both these wicked acts cast a long shadow, because, though impossible to justify by anyone who has any concern for human life, they have been continually justified by the US and UK governments — the US actually dropped the bombs while the UK, who were informed beforehand, gave their approval. Indeed the US considered that it had the support of God himself, as an American Airforce chaplain was given the task of blessing the Hiroshima bomb before it was loaded.

Approval of the atomic bombing has poisoned our national life because our defence policy is based on that approval.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki mock our confected outrage at acts of terrorism committed by others and cock a snook at our humbugging claim that we in the West are unique in the value we put on the individual human life.

Yours sincerely,

Malcolm Pittock