Salisbury CND Hiroshima and Nagasaki candle float

Posted: 7th August 2025

On this 80th anniversary of the dropping of two nuclear bombs on these  cities, we gathered to honour the dead, remember all those damaged by nuclear activities, and call for all nations to acknowledge the horror of such weapons and take actions to eliminate them from our world.

Salisbury is a member of the Mayors for Peace movement and we have close links with people in Hiroshima.  We were honoured to receive a letter from the Mayor of Hiroshima.  We were also very moved to be able to float lanterns made by students in Hiroshima down the River Avon with our own candles.  Each candle represents around 1000 lives lost.

We must stand together and demand a major change in policy that will move us away from the cripplingly expensive and ultimately self destructive notion of having increasing numbers of ever more powerful nuclear weapons.  These weapons, if used, will end life on this planet as we know it.  There will be no victors from such a conflict.  Society needs to wake up to the profound positive changes that could occur as a consequence of not squandering our scarce resources on nuclear weapons.  Be under no illusion that they provide us with security.  The reality is quite the opposite.