Hiroshima anniversary marked in Hamilton

Today marks the 69th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. In Hamilton a small crowd gathered over the noon hour to mark the occasion.

The United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima; and another three days later on Nagasaki. World War II ended shortly after that, with Japan surrendering two weeks later.

Hundreds of thousands of people were killed from the effects of the bombs.

Today members of international and local organizations like Dr Barbara Birkett of Physicians for Global Survival gathered to remind Canadians of the horror, and what can be done to prevent it from happening again.

“I think people tend to forget how terrible they were and are, and the absolute need that they be abolished and never used again.”

Tomorrow the group will launch Shadow Project 2014. That’s when hundreds of body outlines are drawn in chalk on the streets and sidewalks around James St N as a reminder of the human tragedy of nuclear weapons.