World Day for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (06/08)

Hiroshima Day, also known as World Day for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, is celebrated annually on August 6.

A memorable, difficult date takes us to the historical events of August 1945 related to World War II.

The creation of the atomic bomb in the United States and the first test of this type of weapon of mass destruction at a test site in New Mexico in July 1945 marked the beginning of a new stage in human life. From now on, no one could be immune from the all-destructive force of new weapons and the horrific consequences of their use.

The fatal line was drawn on August 6, 1945, when the order to bomb Japanese cities, approved at the end of July by US President Harry Truman, was carried out. The first victim was the city of Hiroshima. The role of the carrier aircraft was played by the B-29 «Enola Gay» bomber. Together with him, three aircraft took off from an airfield in the Marianas Islands, performing the functions of weather reconnaissance aircraft, as well as an aircraft with recording equipment for recording explosion parameters and a bomber with photographic equipment, traveling at a distance, whose tasks included photographic documentation of the consequences of the bombing.

The bombing was not so much of a military nature as it was a test of a new type of weapon, and also played the role of a trump card in the context of the already obvious and growing political confrontation between countries that were still allies in the anti-Hitler coalition.

The bombing of the city initially implied a huge number of civilian casualties. During World War II, supporters of massive raids on cities in Germany and Japan using incendiary bombs among the command of the US and British Air Forces openly stated that the purpose of the bombing was not only to destroy military infrastructure, but also to psychologically influence the civilian population in order to break the spirit to resistance. That is, the command of the Air Force, as well as the political leadership of these states, approved, in fact, methods of warfare that were subject to the prohibitions of many international conventions.

The bombing of cities in Great Britain, the USSR, as well as Japanese aviation of Chinese cities by German aviation was condemned by the world community, but in fact similar methods of warfare were used on an even grander scale by the allies against Germany and Japan.

In fact, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was a test of new weapons on humans, mainly civilians, and carried out in a cynical form. Aviation not only carried out the bombing, but recorded its consequences and the process itself, including recording all the parameters of the explosion.

The effect, as expected, was terrifying. Dumped at 8:15 from a height of 10,000 meters, the «Baby» bomb exploded at an altitude of about 600 meters. Most of the city's residential neighborhoods were wooden buildings. The damaging factors of the explosion essentially wiped the city off the face of the earth. Primary factors (shock wave and light radiation), which caused the destruction of almost all buildings within a radius of four kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion, instantly killed over 80 thousand people, about 12 thousand went missing, about 160 thousand were injured and exposed to radioactive radiation. People were literally burned or crushed under the rubble of buildings from the effects of shock waves, light radiation and fires that followed.

Fires that broke out as a result of the wind formed a fire storm, as a result of which about 62 thousand of the 90 thousand buildings burned down. From the consequences of the explosion, including radiation sickness, by the end of 1945 the death toll had increased and, according to some data, amounted to over 150 thousand people. The force of the light radiation was so great that it left silhouettes of burning people on the walls.

The tragedy of Hiroshima and the effect of the atomic bombing recorded and filmed by the US Air Force, it would seem, should have made the Air Force command and the US leadership realize the scale of the tragedy and not repeat this. However, three days later they again scrambled aircraft and repeated the atomic bombing. This time the victim was the city of Nagasaki. On August 9, the «Fat» bomb, dropped over the city at 11 a.m., claimed the lives of another 73 thousand people immediately at the time of the explosion and about 35 thousand – subsequently from wounds and radiation sickness.

The term «hibakushya» (hibakushya) —, which was damaged by the bombing, even appeared in official documents. Hibakusha turned into a caste of untouchables, became «atomic pariah». It was difficult for them to get a job, to improve their personal lives: who needs a spouse, in a marriage with whom children predisposed to terrible diseases can be born? Among survivors of atomic bombings, 16 times more died from leukemia than the national average, and almost 8 times more suffered from other cancers.

There is still no exact data on the dead, but even according to rough estimates, about 300 thousand people became victims of the bombing, and about 200 thousand more were exposed to radioactive radiation. The number of victims of atomic bombings continued to rise every year from the effects of radiation sickness. Doctors say that even today, the echo of atomic bombings continues to affect people's health, killing many or maiming their health.

10 years after the conclusion of the war and in memory of the tragedy of Hiroshima, on August 6, 1955, this city hosted the First International Conference for the Prohibition of Atomic and Hydrogen Weapons.

Hiroshima Day – is a memorable, mourning date celebrated annually in Japan and around the world. Preparations for it begin long ago, held annually by the «Peace March», when people move from different prefectures of Japan towards Hiroshima. The march ends in the city center. Hiroshima hosts memorial ceremonies, a minute of silence, and the laying of wreaths and flowers at a memorial erected in the city center in memory of hundreds of thousands of people burned alive in the heat of an atomic storm. Here, in the city center, a site with ruins left after the atomic explosion was preserved, and the Peace Park was laid out, in which a monument to the victims of the bombing was erected. It is a concrete tent, as if sheltering the dead. Under the roof of the tent there is a commemorative lime slab with the inscription: «Sleep peacefully, the mistake will not be repeated». Under the slab there is a casket with the names of the dead. Near the monument there is the Peace Memorial Museum, which presents a visual exhibition with photographic materials, wax sculptures, demonstrating the horrors of bombing, the helplessness of ordinary citizens, their torment from their injuries and burns.

Here, in the park, opened in 1954, there is also a memorial memorial bell, the blows to which call on the whole world to remember the dead and do everything to prevent a repeat of the disaster. The Peace Bell was donated by the authorities of Hiroshima in 1985 and to the sister city of Volgograd (Russia). This bell hangs in the panorama museum «Battle of Stalingrad». Every year at 8:15 in Volgograd this bell is struck three times in memory of the victims of the atomic bombing.

Hiroshima has become a symbol of the horror of the use of nuclear weapons and the struggle for peace, and Hiroshima Day has become known as World Day for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Every year on this day, many countries around the world hold numerous actions « against » nuclear weapons and «za» world peace. Activities on the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are now aimed at ensuring that new generations can understand the horror experienced by the victims of the atomic disaster.

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