As 6 August and 9 August mark the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, the World Council of Churches joined the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and other religious and civic groups in urging nuclear-armed and nuclear umbrella states to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
“Though the destruction of Nagasaki still stands as the last time an atomic bomb was used in conflict, it was followed by decades of nuclear weapon testing programmes involving thousands of nuclear detonations around the world, in faraway places where the Indigenous populations and environments continue to suffer the consequences,” noted Peter Prove, director of the World Council of Churches Commission of the Churches on International Affairs. “And now the unlikely combination of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a Hollywood ‘blockbuster’ have thrust the existential threat of nuclear conflagration back into the public consciousness.”
Prove urged: “It’s finally time for the stupidest and most catastrophically destructive weapons ever invented by human beings—or more specifically, men—to be eliminated. So let’s do it.”
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