Press Releases & Updates 2002

The festival, which will feature face painting, African drumming, balloon modelling and spontaneous music was called to follow a week in which people all over the world remembered the atrocities at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when atom bombs dropped by the US killed over 200,000 Japanese civilians, while Japan was seeking surrender and an end to World War 2. [Note 1]

Trident Ploughshares spokesperson Richard Byrne, a veterinary surgeon, said, "It’s important after remembering with regret atrocities like those at Hiroshima and Nagasaki that as well as looking back we look forward to a brighter future, informed by the mistakes of the past. We look forward to a future in which the British Government uses the opportunity presented by the Devonport refit to decommission the 4 Trident submarines. While the subs are at Devonport, with their fuel plates removed and their nuclear weapons removed they are in a position where they can be safely put beyond use, so that the terrible mistakes of 1945 can never be repeated by a British Government."

In November Trident Ploughshares members from all over Europe will come to Devonport for a nuclear disarmament camp. Next Wednesday 14th August Trident Ploughshares will hold a public consultation meeting at the Welcome Hall in Devonport from 7-9pm to explain what the camp is about and to hear concerns about the camp from Devonport residents. The next day there will be an open surgery at the Welcome Hall from 12-4pm for residents to discuss concerns on a one to one level

Earlier this week Trident Ploughshares activists commemorated Hiroshima Day by hanging a "Scrap Trident" banner over dockyard staff entering the Camel’s Head Gate.

Call 01503 250215/250135, 07810 623893. Photos available. For photos Trident Ploughshares actions call 07971 664847

Note 1: General Eisenhower, commander of Allied Forces in Europe, WW2, "Japan was at the very moment seeking some way to surrender... It wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing."

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