Statement from Adi Roche, Honourary Vice President of the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Voluntary CEO of Chornobyl Children International.

“At 8.15 am on this day 81 years ago the first nuclear bomb was dropped on the city and the people of Hiroshima in Japan…just at that moment a small boy stretched out his hand to catch a dragon fly, there was a blinding flash and he disappeared along with tens of thousands of others. 3 days later another nuclear bomb destroyed the city and people of Nagasaki.”

“Such enormous numbers of victims, estimated at over 214,000, can be overwhelming. Buried in that awful statistic is the child victim figure of 38,000 innocent children who suffered horrific, painful deaths. The survivor’s world changed forever with the devastating consequences of the bombings. Survivors ‘envied’ the dead.”

“The personal stories of the ‘Hibakusha’ (the surviving people of the atomic bomb who have carried its heavy legacy) humanise history and lift the veil of our forgetfulness and call us to remember and learn. Their stories bridge that gap between those who were there and those of us who are untouched by the violence of these events. The Hibakusha help us describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons. The Hibakusha are the living reminders of what is at stake…our humanity…our civilisation. Given the instability and raging wars around our world, we are perilously close to the precipice.”

“Modern day nuclear weapons are far more powerful and even more deadly than the deadly weapons dropped on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today, nuclear weapons have a combined destructive capability of 100,000 Hiroshima or Nagasaki sized bombs. Bringing an end to the world as we know it…killing millions and killing the climate catastrophically.”

“Let us awaken to the reality of the true inhumanity of nuclear weapons…I believe that nuclear weapons cannot, must not, coexist with humanity.”

“In remembering the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we are called to act and to reaffirm our commitment to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. We renew our pledge to build a world where nuclear weapons have no place.”

“Current tensions around the globe show us that nuclear escalation is not a relic of the Cold War, but an increasing clear and present danger. Recent attacks on Iranian nuclear facilites is a very real example of such danger. We are regressing into a world in which the ‘rule of law’ is replaced by the ‘rule of power,’ with a destabilising new nuclear arms race. There can be no compromise on the issue of nuclear weapons…we either put an end to nuclear weapons, or they will put an end to us.”

“On this solemn Anniversary I call on the Irish Government, to use our neutrality to promote peace, and reaffirm our Irish commitmnet to nuclear disarmament. As architects of the the first treaties prohibiting nuclear weapons expansion under Frank Aiken (Minister for External Affairs), it has never been more pressing or noble than to work towards preventing nuclear annihalation.”