Media release for Friday 4th August 2023

Hiroshima/Nagasaki Day August 6th

The nuclear doomsday clock stands at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest the risk of nuclear holocaust has ever been. Yet Australia is planning to buy nuclear submarines and is handing over tracts of our north for the US military to use against China. 

78 years ago, two atomic bombs destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nearly a quarter of million were incinerated and countless people have died in the following years. 

“As Sydneysiders gather to commemorate the nuclear victims, we will also be demanding a nuclear free Australia,” said veteran peace activist Denis Doherty. 

“We do not want Alice Springs, Darwin and Katherine to become new Hiroshimas. 

“We do not want $32 million spent every day for 30 years on submarines when we need to deal with climate change, underpaid nurses and teachers and many more needs. 

“The US is building aggressive alliances including the QUAD and AUKUS and recent efforts to bring NATO into our region. But we need peace in our region,” he said. 

The survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the “hibakusha” — say from deep pain that “human life and nuclear weapons cannot exist together.” 

Hiroshima Day will be commemorated in many cities and towns around Australia on August 6.
Details of the Sydney event are: 

Sunday August 6 at 2 pm in Town Hall Square. 

Speakers will be followed by a procession to the Defence Department at 320 Pitt St where wreaths for the victims of nuclear weapons and nuclear testing will be laid.