8 OPINION
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY August 1 - 20 , 2018
Tinig Migrante
By E . Maestro
A small and powerful gathering of activists by the Peace Flame Monument at the Seaforth Peace Park marked the horrific atom bombing of Hiroshima on August 6th , 73 years ago to date .
The peace rally was organized by the Just Peace Committee and joined by activists from the International League of Peoples Struggle-Canada , the East Indian Defence Committee , Migrante BC , GABRIELA BC , the Canada Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights , and the Vancouver Peace Council of the Canadian Peace Congress . A couple of long-time activists in the rally shared memories of the huge peace and anti-war marches in the 80s and the 90s that happened in the Park .
It is important that we not only remember the atom bombing of Hiroshima on August 6 and that of Nagasaki on August 8 , but that we also name what happened for what it was . The rally was remembering the lives lost and the lives damaged . It was also about raising the issue of who did the bombing and why .
First , that the atom bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were acts of destruction and genocide against the Japanese civilian population who were incinerated instantly in the hundreds of thousands and those who died later in the tens of thousands because of radiation . The hundreds of thousands who survived carried the physical and psychological effects from the bombings .
Second , that historical evidence show that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were unnecessary because Japan was already defeated and poised to surrender . Unfortunately , the myth saying otherwise continues to be strong .
Third , that the atom bombings were committed by the United States as an imperialist power bent on making a statement of its superior military strength . In having done so , the US positioned itself as the post- World War superpower and the world ’ s nuclear superpower ; never mind that the atom bombings on civilian populations were absolutely not necessary ( if not unjustifiable .) What did it prove ? That the US government and military could not care less that thousands of innocent Japanese women , children and men were killed when the US test- bombed Japan that August .
It is not well known that the Canadian government , under the auspices of the Quebec Agreement between the US and the United Kingdom , took part in deciding to use the nuclear weapons against the Japanese people . In this sense , Canada was complicit in this war against humanity .
We live in an era where the threat and the potential for nuclear war are real . The US is still the only country that has used nuclear bombs against human beings and we hope and work for peace that this is not repeated ever . The US continues to use its arsenal of nuclear weapons , also known as the weapons of mass destruction , to bully and blackmail other countries , and thus is a threat to world peace . The US and Russia own the majority of the world ’ s nuclear weapons and are joined by others in the nuclear arms race : the United Kingdom , France , China , Israel , Pakistan , India and North Korea .
The US is the only country that maintains the highest number of bases and facilities ( with nuclear weapons ) outside of the US and has warships armed with nuclear missiles on sea . The US has used these to launch its wars of aggression and interventions and we know this because they were , they are on Philippine land and sea .
The backdrop to the
small rally was the Peace Flame Monument of stone
No More Hiroshimas !
A group of committed peace activists ! No more Hiroshimas !
and bronze . The monument was truly a sad sight and appeared to have been abandoned for some time . There was no water spilling down from the top of the monument to the stones below and the eternal flame of peace seems to have burnt out . There was litter among the stones and cardboard pieces strewn on the grass . Inaugurated and lit in 1987 , the memorial commemorates the bombing of Hiroshima and is supposed to highlight Vancouver ’ s commitment to world peace . One of the rallyists remarked , “ It is a sad and apt metaphor for the state of peace in the world .”
I would like to believe that the small rally is one of the many beginnings of huge marches in the near future and that these will only come from the tireless work of struggling and organizing for just peace and of resisting all forms of imperialist aggression , nuclear bullying and black mail .
The atom bombing 73 years ago seems to have been forgotten in Vancouver , except for this small group of committed activists who gathered under the hot sun and demanded : No More Hiroshimas !
Peace Rally with the Peace Flame Monument ( no water , no flame ) in the background .
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