60th Anniversary Of Atomic Bombing Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki

EDM number 627 in 2005-06, proposed by Harry Cohen on 19/07/2005.

That this House notes that 6th August is the 60th anniversary of the US bomb attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; recalls that over 250,000 men, women and children and all social infrastructure within a radius of 3.5 kilometres were instantly vaporised; is aware that many Japanese people suffered great sickness and early death and still suffer environmental, physical and genetic impairment to this day; is conscious that nuclear weapons were close to being used again in the intervening years and that states possessing nuclear weapons have developed weapons that they consider to be usable, despite the destructive power of a single such weapon being many hundred times that of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; is dismayed at the failure to agree upon any significant progress at the recent UN Review Conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to end proliferation and for the nuclear weapon states to eradicate theirs and that UK deployment of a nuclear weapon replacement for Trident would continue the danger of use and proliferation; further notes the judgement of the 1996 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Jurists that the use, or threat of use, of nuclear weapons would be illegal under international law; and considers that a fitting tribute to the Japanese victims is not just remembrance but also a proper commitment to eradicate nuclear weapons worldwide.

This motion has been signed by a total of 37 MPs.