Remembering Hiroshima

David Polden

On 25 July, 12 people from Japan joined around 100 others to take part in the ongoing Faslane 365 Blockade.
     Ten of the Japanese were arrested, including Masahiko Moriguchi, who survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki when he was seven.
    Masahiko said, "As one who experienced the A-bomb, I wanted to see this nuclear base with my own eyes and personally take part in this action to halt the nuclear weapons."
    On 5 August, five protestors were arrested for obstructing a highway, four also for locking-on, at the US nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
    The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were developed at Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project.
    The five protestors were tried and found guilty on 7 August. Sister Mary Lentsch, a Catholic nun, was sentenced to 20 days in jail; Elizabeth Brockman to five days, including the three days she'd been locked up since the action, and the other three, as first-time "offenders", received suspended 30-day sentences and $25 fines.
    On 6 August, the 86-day inter- faith "Footprints for Peace" walk from Dublin via Faslane ended at the annual Hiroshima day ceremony in Tavistock Square, London.
    Apart from the walkers, other speakers included 101-year-old Rose Hacker, 12-year-old Sonia Azad (PN Youth Editor), Bruce Kent and MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Frank Dobson.
    The Footprints walkers participated in a Faslane 365 blockade in May. On 5 August, four of them were arrested at Aldermaston after blockading Tadley Gate in solidarity with the "Block the Builders" group in their ongoing protest against the expansion of