wfn.org | NCC India - Hiroshima Day Message

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

August	5, 2004

Dear Colleagues,

Greetings from the Commission on Transformation of Society of the NCCI.

We hope that you are aware of the Hiroshima Day to be observed all over the
world on the 6th August, by all those who are opposed to war and work
towards the prevalence of peace and humanity.  These committed people
through several like minded organisations and movements are involved in
creative and meaningful activities to send their message  of `No to War4 and
no to Nuclear Armaments across the world!

We hope that you are also planning to observe this day in your own creative
way.  The National Council of churches in India and its team on Commission
on Transformation of Society  prayerfully expresses its solidarity in this
endeavour.

We are enclosing a Fact File compiled from various sources on Nuclear bombs,
its catastrophic potentialities, and its aftermath. Hope you will find it
useful .

With warm regards

In solidarity with the sufferings

Dinesh Suna		Asir Ebenezer			Sagarika Chetty
Executive Secretary		Executive Secretary		Executive
Secretary
Youth and Ecumenical Formation	Urban Rural Mission		AICCW

Encl : As above

c.c.   1.  Officers of NCCI
2.  Chairperson, COT, NCCI

FACT FILE

OBSERVE HIROSHIMA NAGASAKI DAY
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On Aug. 6, 1945, an atomic weapon of about 15 kilotons--carried by a U.S.
bomber named Enola Gay, exploded about 1,800 feet (550 meters) over the
Japanese city of Hiroshima. This bomb had enriched uranium. On August 9, a
Trinity-type weapon of about 20 kilotons exploded about 1,800 feet (550
meters) above Nagasaki. The bombs devastated both cities. About 70,000
people died at Hiroshima and about 40,000 at Nagasaki, and many thousands
more were injured.
Effects of an Atomic Bomb Explosion
The devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted from three main types of
effects: blast, thermal radiation, and nuclear radiation. Of these, only the
blast effect is significant for chemical high explosives. The blast effect
of an atomic bomb is similar to that of a conventional explosive but much
more intense and far-reaching. Thermal radiation, which results from the
extremely high temperatures created by an atomic explosion, causes serious
burns on exposed parts of the body and may ignite fires over a wide radius.
Nuclear radiation, which results from the neutrons and gamma rays associated
with fission, causes death and injury as a result of damage to living
tissue.
Among the survivors of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, roughly equal
numbers of injuries were caused by blast and thermal radiation but
considerably fewer by nuclear radiation. Each of the three types of effects
posed serious hazards to unprotected persons out to a distance of about a
mile (1.6 km) from a point directly below the explosion.
The first Soviet nuclear bomb was exploded on 29th August 1949 at
Semipalatinsk in eastern Kazakhstan.

Since then, thousands of villagers and their children have died from cancer,
including rare forms of tongue and eye cancer, as a result of exposure to
radiation from the tests.

Those who received the heaviest doses have passed genetic defects on to
their children and grandchildren.

Three generations - hundreds of thousands of people in the region - have
suffered from diseases ranging from cancer to mental illness.

The Soviets carried out 470 tests, underground and above ground, in the area
around Semipalatinksk.

II
Worse, in May 1998, the Indian government revealed it had conducted five
underground nuclear tests in the Pokhran desert in Rajasthan.	These were
the type of tests which would be banned under the treaty.

The tests included a bomb claimed to be three times the size of the one
dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945 which led to the deaths of
over 200,000 people.

In response to the Indian tests, Pakistan then carried out five explosions
at its underground test site at Dostain Wadh in the Chagai district of
Baluchistan in South West Pakistan.   There was widespread concern that,
just as the world was voting to end nuclear testings, India and Pakistan was
on the brink of another potentially lethan nuclear arms race.

Scientists in India have calculated that a single bomb dropped on Mumbai
would kill up to 800,000.  The hear from the bombs fireball would vaporize
people.

Huge firestorms and the bombs blast pressure would reduce the city to
ashes.

Fatal radiation would kill some people immediately and leave others to slow
and painful deaths from radiation sickness and cancers.

III
Over the past 50 years, the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China
have carried out more than 2000 nuclear tests and built up huge stocks of
nuclear arms.

There are now an estimated 36,000 nuclear weapons in existence - several
hundred thousand times more damaging than the Hiroshima bomb, and enough to
destroy the planet many times over.

Doctors say that worldwide, nuclear testing in the atmosphere will result in
more than two million people dying of cancer.	The USA and the Soviet Union
have admitted that radioactive gases were released into the atmosphere even
during underground testing.   France admits that half a tonne of plutonium
has been left under Moruroa atoll, its Pacific test site, where it will leak
into the ocean.

IV
Bombs are made either with highly enriched uranium or plutonium.

Plutonium is one of the most radioactive and toxic substances in existence :
a single microgram smaller than a speck of dust can cause fatal cancer if
inhaled or ingested.   A sphere of plutonium, smaller than a tennis ball,
could be used to fuel a nuclear bomb which could kill millions of people.

Plutonium is created during the burning of uranium as fuel in nuclear
reactors.   During plutonium production and reprocessing, highly radioactive
wastes are created.   Radiation levels inside reprocessing plants are very
high  and the plant must be heavily shielded and operated by remote control
to protect workers and the environment.  Radioactive waste is also routinely
pumped into rivers and seas, polluting fisheries and endangering human
health.

In the US, the cost of cleaning up the radioactive pollution created by the
nuclear weapons complex has been estimated at US $ 365 billion, almost as
much as the cost of building nuclear weapons in the first place.

Need of the Hour :

	Demand for a ban on  the development, production and deployment of
any more nuclear weapons.
	Demand for an immediate reduction in nuclear arsenals.
	Demand to eliminate all nuclear weapons from the planet within a
time bound framework.
	Condemn War and all forma of aggression of one
person/group/community/country over another.

Compiled  by NCCI
from different sources.

__________________________
News letter : N C C India