Today marks the 75th anniversary of the horrific atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Together with the bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August, the two bombs killed about 240,000 civilians by the end of 1945 and sickened many more with cancer and chronic diseases.
75 years after these bombings, survivors are still working for nuclear abolition. On 6 August, we stand with them to remember these bombings. We can’t change the past. But we must remember the horrors the survivors of atomic bombings have endured and honor them by our actions to make sure it never happens again. To bring the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons into force. To end nuclear weapons.
All over the world, actions and events will be organized to remember and to act. In the Netherlands, local groups will be organizing events in 10 cities across the country. In Amsterdam for example, there will be a die-in at 100 seconds before noon, the time of the Doomsday Clock. The Peace Palace will play peace songs on its carillon. And we will deliver signatures from Dutch citizens to the Hague, asking the government to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki and reject nuclear weapons.
In addition, financial institutions, parliamentarians, religious groups and other organisations will commemorate the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On Sunday, the day Nagasaki was bombed, churches across the Netherlands will dedicate prayers to the victims and survivors.