N°16-septembre 2021 76 years ago the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two non-military objectives, were wiped off the map by two atomic bombs dropped by the US air force.
Although supposed to end the war against Japan, their main objective was to stop the land offensive of the USSR against Japan and to serve as a warning to the Soviets in preparation for the Cold War.
This bombardment claimed tens of thousands of direct victims and many more for a long time in the period following the nuclear explosions. This year, the commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima, and later of Nagasaki, is the first since the entry into force, on January 21, 2021, of the international Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
As the Hibakusha (Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors) state in their 2016 international call for the elimination of nuclear weapons that garnered millions of signatures around the world, “Humanity today stands at a crossroads. Either we save our blue planet as it is, with all of its living beings, or we are on our way to self-destruction. Nuclear weapons could wipe out mankind, as well as all other living creatures. They could destroy the environment and turn the earth into a dead planet. "
Let us recall that the TPNW stipulates that the signatory states undertake "to pursue in good faith negotiations on effective measures relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament and on a general and complete disarmament treaty under strict and efficient international control".
However the reality is that this treaty is not respected, neither by France with its production of new nuclear weapons program and the pursuit of nuclear laboratory tests, nor by the other nuclear powers. The harmfulness and danger of nuclear weapons is now an established fact and nuclear weapons policies with the tests they always have involved and still do, have caused a lot of damage and victims in the countries that have suffered them. This is the case with France’s trials in Algeria and the Pacific. During his recent visit to the Pacific Macron, although shedding "crocodile tears" on the victims of these tests did not utter a word to qualify the aggressive policy of imperialism which is at the root of these atmospheric or maritime tests. Neither did he utter a word of apology from the French colonial power. To stay the arm of the warmongers, the only solution is the struggle for peace and disarmament by showing the responsibility of imperialism in the current confrontations and in those that are being prepared. That is why when the school year begins in September 2021, we will contribute to the International Day of Peace and the marches on Saturday September 25 as part of the United Nations International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. The entry into force on January 22, 2021 of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPWN) drawn up in application of article 6 of the NPT (Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons signed by France) opens the way to a new period of mobilizations necessary to win the total and final elimination of these weapons of mass destruction and to obtain that France adhere to the TPWN to finally respect its international commitments in terms of nuclear disarmament.