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Journalism of Courage
The anniversary of Hiroshima, where the first nuclear bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, has invited progressively less attention worldwide. It is possible that we are all becoming more cynical, or at least less sensitive, to the death and destruction symbolised by Hiroshima where in one moment life stood still, and death took over, killing and seriously wounding 160,000 innocent people. That a single bomb dropped from the air, thousands of miles away from home, could wreck so much havoc then became the foundation for doctrines of Mutually Assured Destruction by civilised countries for decades to follow. On the other side, hope rested on the release of thousands of white doves into the sky from Hiroshima yesterday to symbolise the struggle for the global abolition of nuclear weapons.
The international community see-ms to have given up the goal of abolishing nuclear weapons in recent years. Even the lip service of earlier years was absent on Hiroshima Day. Global attention and pressure for nuclear disarmament by peace movements has all but disappeared. It is indeed ironic that the United States launched a war on the grounds that Iraq was building nuclear weapons; but wants to recommence testing to make newer, more accurate and usable nuclear bombs in spite of its international obligations. During the past year one more country has broken into the group of nuclear weapon states showing no reservations about threatening others. All trends point toward the salience of nuclear weapons increasing in the coming years.
