News / Hiroshima Exhibition until Friday
COUNCIL Convener Sandy Cluness has opened a two day exhibition of photographs about the bombing of the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The exhibition at the Lerwick town hall, donated by the major of Nagasaki and organised by Nuclear Free Local Authorities and Mayors for Peace, is open to the public during office hours. It closes at 4pm on Friday.
Mr Clunees, one of the first mayors for peace in Scotland, said it was important that Shetland played its small part to prevent that anything like it will ever happen again.
“This past Sunday we stood across the road in remembrance of those Shetlanders who had lost their lives in two world wars. In the first war alone, 600 died, roughly one in every thirty of the population, so virtually every family in Shetland knew of the loss of a loved one.
“Nowadays, thanks to digital television, it is possible through the history channels to see actual footage of the bombs raining down on London or Dresden and of course the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“At 8.15am on 6 August 1945 the people in Hiroshima were doing exactly what we have done today – men women and children got up, were having breakfast, getting ready to go to school or work.
“Yet there are still enough nuclear weapons around us to wipe out the entire human race. That is why throughout the world countless millions of ordinary people like us are determined that these monstrous scenes shown in this exhibition should never be repeated,” Mr Cluness said.
So far more than 50,000 in the UK have had the chance to see the exhibition. It will continue around the country, including a visit to the Scottish Parliament. It will be at Westminster in time for the 2012 Olympics.
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