Rally calls for peace on Hiroshima Day

Hiroshima Day protest, Brisbane, August 6. Photo: Jim McIlroy

The annual Hiroshima Day rally and march, commemorating the US atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, was held in Brisbane on August 6.

The rally, under the theme, "For a nuclear-free and independent Australia," attracted about 100 people to Brisbane Square, to hear speakers, and singers, including the Trade Union Choir.

Dr Sue Wareham, from the Medical Association for Prevention of War, told the audience: "Japan has suffered three nuclear catastrophes — Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Fukushima. These disasters together emphasise the close link between nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

"We need to support the international campaign, ICAN," she said. "This stands for, 'I can imagine a world without a nuclear industry'."

Dr Marianne Hanson, politics lecturer at University of Queensland, outlined "the risks and dangers in all nuclear technology, especially nuclear weapons.

"Accidents are inevitable," she said. "And the only answer is to phase out the entire nuclear industry."

Robyn Taubenfeld, from Nuclear Free Queensland and Peace Convergence, condemned the Talisman Sabre military exercises, held recently at Shoalwater Bay in central Queensland. These exercises are "the world's largest military exercises, involving 32,000 military personnel," she said.

"Australia greatly contributes to the international nuclear arms race, through its involvement in uranium mining and the housing of US military forces and bases. We need to stop supporting US military interventions and collaborating with the US nuclear war machine."

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