Remember -- Now More than Ever

Today is the anniversary of Hiroshima, the day that the Enola Gay B-29 warplane dropped the atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945.

CNN is one of the few news media to note the day, Hiroshima rally mourns A-bomb dead, noting:

In an annual ritual to mourn the more than 220,000 people who ultimately died from the blast, a crowd including survivors, children and dignitaries gathered at the Peace Memorial Park, near ground zero where the bomb was dropped.

"Radiation, heat, blast and their synergetic effects created a hell on Earth," said Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba.

Lamenting a global trend towards nuclear proliferation, Akiba called for a campaign to free the world of atomic weapons.

"Sixty-one years later, the number of nations enamored of evil and enslaved by nuclear weapons is increasing," Akiba told the crowd gathered under a blazing summer sun.

Unfortunately, as Mary Shaw of Philadelphia Freedom Watch stated, in Happy Hiroshima Day:

Today, even as George W. Bush tells other countries that they must not develop nuclear weapons, the United States is maintaining a stockpile of 10,000 nuclear bombs.

See also Hiroshima and Nagasaki Remembered and Post Atomic Bomb Footage (via Throw away your TV).

Finally, for an interesting and provocative view of Hiroshima, see this book review by John Denson of The Decision to Use the Bomb by Gar Alperovitz at Lew Rockwell's blog, The Hiroshima Myth.

Tags: News, Hiroshima