Despite the rain, about 100 people rallied in Hyde Park on August 6 to declare, "Hiroshima Never Again," on the 71st anniversary of the US atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945. The themes of the rally were: "Ban nuclear weapons," and "No nuclear waste dumps in Australia".
A dramatic round of traditional drumming by a local Japanese cultural group and a set by the band Urban Guerrillas kicked off the rally.
NSW Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon and anti-nuclear campaigner Nat Wasley spoke before the rally marched to the Prime Minister's office to protest at his government's lack of action on a nuclear weapons ban.
A spokesperson for International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said: “Nuclear weapons are unique in their destructive power and the threat they pose to human survival. They release vast amounts of energy in the form of blast, heat and radiation.
“No adequate humanitarian response is possible. In addition to causing tens of millions of immediate deaths, a regional nuclear war using less than 1% of the world's arsenal would disrupt the climate and agricultural production so severely that two billion people would be at risk of famine.
"But the good news is that the international debate on nuclear weapons has started to shift away from narrow concepts of national security to focus instead on the humanitarian impact of the weapons. The resulting picture is clear: a ban on nuclear weapons is urgently needed."
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