ON August 6, 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, followed three days later by another on Nagasaki.

Estimated casualties were 140,000 killed at Hiroshima and 74,000 at Nagasaki with similar numbers injured — roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness and other injuries, compounded by illness and malnutrition. In both cities most of the dead were civilians. The survivors of the bombing — the hibakusha — had to live for the rest of their lives with the risk of contracting cancer from the radiation and the genetic damage was passed on to later generations.

Every year Bolton CND / Stop the War group mark these horrific events. This year, we will hold a silent vigil at the War Memorial opposite Bolton Town Hall from 12.30pm to 1pm on Saturday, August 6. Please join us.

The UK now has 225 nuclear weapons and each has about nine times the destructive power of the Hiroshima Bomb. The UK also has the 4th largest military budget in the world and plans to spend up to £200 billion on the Trident nuclear weapons system in the next 30 years, despite its obligation under the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty to work towards divesting itself of all nuclear weapons.

Since the signing of this treaty in 1976, successive attempts to secure nuclear disarmament have been blocked by the UK Government and the other states with nuclear weapons, despite 139 countries demanding a treaty to ban them. We call for the unconditional decommissioning of Trident as a contribution to the NPT. The large sums of money saved can be usefully spent on health, education and other services such as libraries.

It is disappointing that none of the three Bolton MPs voted recently against Trident renewal. Chris Green for Bolton West voted in favour, David Crausby for Bolton North East said he would have voted the same way if able to be present and Yasmin Qureshi for Bolton South East abstained. Please contact your MP if you believe they should have voted differently.

Barry Mills

Secretary, Bolton CND/Stop the War Group