NUCLEAR disarmament is not a pipe dream but an immediate priority to prevent current wars turning apocalyptic, crowds gathering in Hiroshima on the 79th anniversary of the first atomic bombing heard today.

Hiroshima Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki said advocates of nuclear deterrence — including the Japanese government which places itself under the “nuclear umbrella” of the United States, the only country ever to have used these weapons — ignore the fact that “as long as nuclear weapons exist, they will surely be used again someday. 

“Abolition is not an ideal to achieve far in the future — it is a pressing issue that we should desperately engage in at this moment.”