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September 8, 2005
United for peace
Recently, Hiroshima Day was observed as a memorial on August 6 at Tavistock Square in London under the aegis of the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament, Britain’s much respected peace NGO, writes Miriam Habib
A constituency exists that decries all weaponry, with a special abhorrence for nuclear weapons wherever they may be. The arsenals of the great nuclear powers threaten all living things with their destructive potential. The endemic insecurity compels nations and groups into a futile, self-defeating rivalry to outmuscle each other.
The greatest crime yet to be committed in this scramble for self-aggrandizement was the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. “Little Boy” was the nickname for the lethal, earth-searing explosive dropped on a Japanese city 60 years ago.
Since then, how many more little boys have been created to pollute the earth, to furnish the toys with which ruthless big boys conduct their murderous games, their threats and counter threats. Having incinerated 160,00 at Hiroshima, was it necessary to repeat the immoral act at Nagasaki a few days later, another Japanese city having only a civilian population?
The argument that the Japanese would not have hesitated to use a bomb on New York or London had they acquired one, first is extremely obnoxious. The big powers could have demonstrated their killer strength and brought the war to an end as effectively by blowing up an uninhabited island off the enemy coast. But, according to the peace lobby, the US intentionally and experimentally used the atomic bomb on populated areas to see its effect on humans.
Now that the deadly result is known the rush to belong to the elite nuclear club prompts even low-income, poorly developed countries like Pakistan, to test its new cruise missile which can travel and hit further than India’s.
Hiroshima Day was observed as a memorial on August 6 at Tavistock Square in London under the aegis of the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), Britain’s much respected peace NGO. Tavistock Square in the busy heart of London was the scene of the bus explosion a month earlier, right outside the offices of the British Medical Association. A statue of Gandhi seated marks the centre of the garden where peace activists of all ages and many races had gathered to raise their voice against war and violence.
Committed peace activists are contemptuously referred to as “peaceniks”, unrealistic dreamers who leave defence to others. It may be remembered that such activists demonstrated in the freezing winter of 1969 outside Washington’s White House to bring an end to the Vietnam misadventure. Church groups and others also formed human chains around Nato nuclear weapons sites in Europe to have them removed.
As the CND event was open to all, I went along that balmy summer day to join the propagators of non-violence and add my few pennies to the cause. It was edifying to see women heading movements. The borough of Camden has a woman mayor in Barbara Hughes, a maternal figure in her robes of office. The Reverend Elaine Dando guides the Church of St. Pancras, she spoke about the injunction not to kill.
Jeremy Corbyn, Labour MP for Islington, chaired the stand up gathering of several hundred present that morning. A dissenter, he is against Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war. He also warned that his country was investing heavily in improving and replacing weapons.
A chorus sang:
All that we have created with our hands,
And our minds, for the glory of the world we live in.
Now it can be smashed, in a moment destroyed.
Deadly the harvest of two atom bombs.
Then brothers and sisters, you must watch and take care.
That the third atom bomb never comes.
Another song titled “Who do they think they are?” goes:
These men in suits who posture and proclaim
Who speak of justice as they kill and maim
And have the gall to do it in our name.
Who do they think they are?”
The elegantly composed chairperson of the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament, Kate Hudson, in reply to her own question, “Will it happen again?”, said, yes it can; 20,000 nuclear weapons still exist and the US and the UK want to develop more. These weapons form a deadly cancer on the planet. The use of the atom bomb was a war crime that must be exposed, she said. It was known that the Japanese wanted to surrender. Was it necessary to drop the bomb?
Yet another woman, young Joanna Small, winner of the mayor of London’s Hiroshima poem competition for London schools, read out her composition to acclaim all around.
A veteran figure in the international peace movement, Bruce Kent, asserted that there was a direct line from Hiroshima in August 1945 to the London bombings of July 2005. The first event set the example for waging war on civilian populations. Referring to the current slogan “Make poverty history”, he said that to achieve that you must first make war history, and for that you have to deal with the causes of terrorism.
Silver-haired Kent called on Britain not to renew the Trident weapon and cited Nelson Mandela for having abolished nuclear weapons from South Africa. It was announced that the Muslim Council of Britain had been invited, but no speaker came for Hiroshima day. The council claims to be an umbrella organization for 400 Muslim groups in Britain.
Poetry again provided a theme for the closing:
Time is short, we must be speedy
We can see the hungry filled
House the homeless, help the needy
Shall we blast or shall we build?
Men and women stand together,
Do not heed the men of war
Make your minds up, now or never,
Ban the bomb for ever more
Ever since the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington, followed by the attack on Afghanistan, the Walk in Peace initiative was started by ordinary people to propagate the cause of peace. All are invited to gather near Hyde Park Corner on the first Sunday of every month for a silent walk together.
It is one way to express a belief in inner and outer peace. Replicated in cities, countries, and the world, such demonstrations can show that the simple, common people yearn for peace. They have no desire to compete with the nuclear Joneses and would prefer their leaders to emulate the great Mandela, to decree a surgical removal of the cancer that pollutes the planet.
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