Thankyou for Sally for this ..

The Abingdon Peace Group had our usual vigil at the War Memorial from 7.45-8.15am, and were joined , as last year, by a young man who comes from Hiroshima and who in fact will be back there this week with his wife and son, visiting his family.

We also had a little ceremony in the Abbey Meadow in the afternoon to dedicate the Peace Tree, a Japanese cherry which we planted many years ago but which had to be replaced recently. We read a “postcard from Hiroshima” which reported on a 50-day pilgrimage taking place now, from the island of Okinawa to Hiroshima. We also heard a poem written by one of our members, Mavis Howard, after a visit to the Luneberger Heath and the death camp at Belsen, reflecting on the deaths there and in the firestorm at Dresden.

The anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima is today, August 6th, and the Abingdon Peace Group gathered, as they have done for many years now, for a 30-minute vigil at the War Memorial in Abingdon – at 8.15am this morning, the time the bomb was dropped.

They were joined by a man from Hiroshima, born their 42 years ago and now working at Harwell, who said it was very moving that people in Abingdon, so very far away, remember his home town in this way. That Hiroshima is a place where people work for peace and no more bombs, especially nuclear bombs.

The bombing of Hiroshima on August, 6, 1945 was followed by the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9 1945.

At the Abingdon war memorial on August 6th 2016, members of the Abingdon Peace Group were joined in a vigil on Saturday by someone who grew up in Hiroshima.

Katsuaki Inoue is a research scientist living in Abingdon with his wife and young son. When he heard that there was a vigil to mark the 71st anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima he rushed down to the war memorial to join in.

Katsuaki said, “My father was living in Hiroshima in 1945, but was fortunately in a village a few miles away on August 6th when the bomb was dropped. I am so touched that people in Abingdon still remember what happened. Thank you!”

Bruce Kent was there at St Nicolas Church last night at the invitation of the Abingdon Peace Group.

Bruce introduced Tim Wallis, who has written a book on the arguments for and against keeping Trident, called ‘The Truth about Trident’. Tim said that none of the arguments for keeping Trident, even that of deterrence, stand up to scrutiny. His presentation was made on the day after parliament voted overwhelmingly to renew Trident.

I suspect that this could be another topic where MPs do not accurately reflect public opinion. Trident allows Britain to punch above its weight on the world stage, even though the United States provides nuclear missiles for our submarines, and has to replace them regularly.