Hiroshima Day Commemorated
On August 6, peace activists gathered at the pool behind the Centennial Library to mark the 55th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and the 10th anniversary of the imposition of sanctions against Iraq. More than 200,000 died in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and it is estimated that more than one million Iraqis have died as the result of the UN imposed sanctions. Despite numerous appeals from groups, organizations and citizens, Canada continues to support the sanctions on Iraq.
The commemoration was marked by a speech from a representative of Veterans Against Nuclear Arms followed by a lantern ceremony in which candle-lit paper lanterns are set afloat on the water. The lantern ceremony originated in Hiroshima in memory of those who died. As much as the event marks these consequences of war, it is also meant to measure the progress in achieving peace and security in the international arena.
The history of Hiroshima and the more recent history of Iraq are important lessons for the world's people. These two events, 45 years apart, are significant in defining the modern era and the problem of international peace and security in the world.
The bombing of Hiroshima (and Nagasaki three days later), came on the eve of the Cold War. It was the declaration of U.S. imperialism that the defeat of Nazism in Europe and Japanese militarism in the East would not bring about a new era of international peace and security. With the bombing of these two cities, U.S. imperialism served notice on the world's people that it had emerged as a superpower, possessing the ultimate weapons of destruction. What followed were decades of rivalry and contention between the U.S. and the Soviet Union for military supremacy and domination of the world. Through their geopolitical alliances and interventions in various regions they waged wars for control of strategic areas, zones of influence, resources and markets. Not one region of the world, country or people remained untouched by this struggle between the superpowers.
The war against Iraq in 1991 came following the collapse of the regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The Cold War was declared over and U.S. President George Bush declared -- on the eve of the war against Iraq -- that a New World Order was taking shape and Iraq was to be its first test. As with the end of the Second World War, the end of the Cold War did not bring about an era of international peace and security. The war against Iraq and the subsequent imposition of sanctions signaled the beginning of new struggles on a par with and as dangerous as those witnessed during the Cold War. Wars against Somalia and Yugoslavia have ensued and Russia, with the tacit blessing of Europe and the U.S., launched a brutal war against the people of Chechnya. At the same time, numerous wars are being waged in Africa and Asia and the U.S. has recently announced its intention to build an anti-missile system.