Across Canada and around the world, peace groups will be marking the sixtieth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima City, Japan on August 6, 2005. The commemoration of this horrific crime against humanity will be an important part of the struggle to abolish nuclear weapons, by means of a comprehensive disarmament treaty.

U.S. imperialism demonstrated its utterly barbaric and racist nature by dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima City in 1945. The attack was unnecessary from a military standpoint, as Japan had indicated it was prepared to surrender.

Rather than demonstrate the use of atomic weapons on a relatively unpopulated part of Japan and motivated by chauvinist views laced with anti-Japanese racism, U.S. imperialism used the weapon on a large city instantly killing more than 80,000 people, a number that increased to 200,000 people by 1950 due to the lingering effects of radiation.

Many Japanese financial and military leaders escaped punishment for their serious war crimes, but the people of Hiroshima were also victims of a war crime. The historical record shows that U.S. imperialism used the atom bomb to gain global domination by terrorizing people with the threat of nuclear weapons and to reduce the influence of the USSR in the post-World War Two period.

Imperialist countries are developing ever deadlier uses for nuclear weapons, these weapons are part of the “first use” doctrine of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the U.S. is pressing to put them in space to dominate the earth. The main imperialist countries - the United States, Britain and France - consider such weapons an important part of their military potential.

U.S. intransigence led to the failure of the Non-Proliferation Treaty talks in May of this year, raising the spectre of an uncontrolled nuclear arms race. Mass actions by the world’s peoples will be needed to force imperialism to relinquish nuclear weapons. Until then, the threat of an accidental nuclear war will be ever-present.

The Communist Party of Canada urges its members to participate in the anniversary commemorations on Hiroshima Day in their local communities, and to urge local and provincial government leaders to send messages in support of arms control and disarmament talks leading to the abolition of nuclear weapons to Prime Minister Paul Martin and the Mayor of Hiroshima City on August 6, 2005.