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‘It wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing’
KATE HUDSON of CND lays to rest some myths about the supposed ‘necessity’ of bombing the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II
[Shankar S / Creative Commons]

AS WE mourn the loss of all those killed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki by US atomic bombs, in August 1945, we cannot avoid the fact that we are closer than ever to nuclear war.

The war on Ukraine is greatly increasing the risk. So too is Nato’s location of upgraded nuclear weapons across Europe — including Britain — and Russia’s siting of similar weapons in Belarus.

Irresponsible talk suggesting that “tactical” nuclear weapons could be deployed on the battlefield — as if radiation can be constrained in a small area — makes nuclear use more likely.

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