Nagasaki survivors urge nuclear ban

[justinsb]

Nagasaki survivors urge nuclear ban

The Japanese city of Nagasaki is marking the 60th anniversary of becoming the second city to suffer an atomic attack, by calling on the US to give up its nuclear arsenal.

Three days after the world's first atomic bombing reduced Hiroshima to ruins, a second bomb, code-named Fat Man after Winston Churchill, hit the hilly southern port of Nagasaki, killing more than 70,000 people.

About 6000 people including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi began with a minute of silent prayer at 11.02am (0202 GMT) on Tuesday, 60 years to the moment the plutonium bomb was dropped on 9 August 1945.

"To the citizens of America: We understand your anger and anxiety over the memories of horror of the 9/11 terrorist attacks," Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Ito told the ceremony in the city's peace park.

"Yet, is your security actually enhanced by your government's policies of maintaining 10,000 nuclear weapons, of carrying out repeated sub-critical nuclear tests, and of pursuing the development of new 'mini' nuclear weapons?" Ito asked.

"We are confident that the vast majority of you desire in your hearts the elimination of nuclear arms. May you join hands with the people of the world who share that same desire and work together for a peaceful planet free from nuclear weapons," he said.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1E77BC0A-1EDF-4F16-BE27-DB14D664EABB.htm

[Mizmoon]

1. I often wonder why einstien is revered

Look at the agony, suffering, and danger he and Oppenheimer and their colleagues have brought to the world.

[justinsb]

2. Einstein was brilliant

Science is not, in and of itself, evil - it all depends on when (and sometimes if) it's used. Einstein came up with the theory, but he also tried to caution the world against using it and was one of the first anti-nuclear activists. I think the nuclear bomb haunted him to the grave.

[Mizmoon]

3. Even he felt very guilty about it all

that's why he devoted himself to peace later ... to try to make up for what he'd helped unleash on the world. I'm not sure that he did.