YESTERDAY, Wednesday, August 6, was the 58th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, when the United States became the first and only nation to use nuclear weapons.

Four days later, another atomic device was dropped on Nagasaki. Last year the authorities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had counted 356,063 deceased victims of the atomic bombs. More than half a century after the event, radiation continues to add thousands more names to the list every year. Such a number is hard to visualise, but, as a rough guide, imagine the September 11 Twin Towers attacks happening in Japan every six months since 1945.

Our understanding of this atrocity has changed dramatically over the last few decades with the declassification of many US Government documents related to the decision to drop the atomic bomb. For many years it was an unquestionable assumption that Hiroshima was the only way for the US to stop the Second World War short of a full-scale invasion of the Japanese homeland, which would have cost the lives of thousands of American soldiers.

A more careful review of the evidence now available reveals this to be little more than a convenient myth. By 1945 President Truman's administration was well aware that Japan's wartime economy was in dire straits and that many in the Japanese government were making diplomatic initiatives to end the war. The US government believed that a Russian declaration of war would convince Japanese military leaders that defeat was imminent. But once the atomic bomb had been successfully tested, Truman and his advisers realised they could ensure a quick victory over Japan without Stalin's help. A demonstration of the new weapon would also give the US the edge in the post-war balance of power. It has been said that the bombing of Hiroshima did not end the Second World War, but began the Cold War.

The bombing of Hiroshima has never been more relevant to us than today. President Bush has refused to ratify the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The US has also recently announced that it has begun to develop new types of missiles with smaller nuclear payloads, and that it is willing to use them in "pre-emptive self-defence" strikes against both nuclear and non-nuclear countries. It seems that President Bush has yet to learn that there can be no such thing as a winnable nuclear war.

On Saturday, August 10, Bolton CND will be holding a silent vigil in front of the War Memorial in Albert Square from 12.30-1pm to remember the victims of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to hope that we might yet see a world free from such barbaric weapons. Anyone who wishes to join us would be more than welcome.

John Greenwood

Bolton CND/Stop

the War Coalition