disarmament – Nonviolence International Canada

Victoria BC 2026 Commemoration event of the first use of nuclear weapons in war

Victoria BC 2026 Commemoration event of the first use of nuclear weapons in war – the bombing of Hiroshima, 6 August

Event is free to attend, we request people register HERE

Commemoration events will occur worldwide, and in Hiroshima.

Victoria, British Columbia was declared a Nuclear Weapons Free City and British Columbia has been a self-declared nuclear-weapons-free zone since 1992.

In June 2019, Victoria endorsed the Cities Appeal of the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, along with many other Canadian cities, for the Canadian government to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Hiroshima commemorations hold global and historical significance by serving as a symbol of the desire for peace. Hiroshima commemorations are a vital educational tool to convey the horror and absolute unacceptability of nuclear warfare. Hiroshima commemorations are an urgent rallying call for worldwide nuclear disarmament, and are a solemn public memorial to honor the civilian victims.

While Canada possesses no nuclear weapons, the threat is not distant to us. The largest known stockpile of nuclear weapons resides less than 60 miles from our city, at the US governments Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific in Kitsap-Bangor, Washington State . Once every 10 days, a submarine from that Trident Nuclear Submarine base at Kitsap sails within 10km of Victoria and Sooke as they leave on their regular passage out the Juan de Fuca strait to the Pacific ocean.

Please join us.

Nonviolence International Canada is a co-host of this event.

Also note the following events of remembrance:

Artist Talk: Photo Exhibition “remains Nagasaki”

Ken Mizokoshi’s photo project remains Nagasaki, involved taking photos of personal belongings such as clock, school uniform and cap that were found around the epicenter of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki. These belongings were discovered on the ground after the bombing. They are part of the collection of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, the Urakami Catholic church in Nagasaki, and the medical department of Nagasaki University. He wants people in the world to know about the atomic bomb survivors and the dangers of nuclear weapons. He believes that these personal belongings can deeply convey the tragedy that their owners experienced. He also wants viewers to feel the dreadfulness more personally, at a closer distance, rather than just simply reading statistics about the people who were killed by the bomb. His goal was to encourage viewers to imagine each person’s life through their possessions. This project’s photo exhibition has been held in Nagasaki, Tokyo, New York, and other locations, attracting widespread interest.

Venue and Dates：
Venue１: Greater Victoria Public Library James Bay Branch (385 Menzies Street, Victoria,
BC V8V 0C2) From August 24 th to November 23 rd
Venue 2: The Dock (722 Cormorant Street, Victoria, BC, V8W 1P8) From September 7th to November 23rd
Supported by
Human Rights Committee of Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society
Victoria Arts Council

Across the border in Washington State, activists will gather on the Nagasaki Day weekend to seek an end to nuclear weapons. For further info see:

Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons a challenge to all permanent members of the U.N. (In)Security Council

On 24 January 1946, the first resolution of the newly created United Nations General Assembly established a commission with a mandate to make specific proposals for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Today, seventy four years later, on 24 October 2020 the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) came into force when the 50^th state ratified it.

To repeat the words uttered yesterday by Setsuko Thurlow, a Hibakusha who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945, “This is the beginning of the end of nuclear weapons.”

This is a victory for citizen action, led by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a coalition of almost 60 civil society groups around the planet. States are only following where citizen action has led. Now, for the first time, people on whom nuclear weapons were tested will now have rights.

The nine nations, who terrorize us all with omnicide, and who have kept the entire world and all its citizens hostage for the past 75 years are now being called out on their actions. Their nuclear weapons are not just immoral now but illegal.

The TPNW bans development, testing, production, manufacture, transfer, possession, stockpiling of nuclear weapons. It bans the use, or threatened use of nuclear weapons. It prohibits any state party to the treaty from allowing nuclear weapons to be stationed on their territory. It also prohibits states party to the treaty from assisting, encouraging or inducing anyone to engage in any of these activities.

States party to the convention are obliged to provide assistance to all victims of the use and testing of nuclear weapons and to take measures for the remediation of contaminated environments.

The preamble acknowledges the harm suffered as a result of nuclear weapons, including the disproportionate impact on women and girls, and on indigenous peoples around the world.

States which join the convention must agree to destroy any nuclear weapons in their possession with a legally binding, time-bound plan. Any state which joins the convention and has another states nuclear weapons on their territory must agree to have them removed by a specified time.

The obligation to universalize the Treaty can have profound impact.

Following the 50^th needed ratification, the convention enters into legal force in 90 days time, on 21 January 2021.

The embrace of the TPNW by the global community stands in stark contrast to the United States where just a few days ago it sentenced one of its citizens to almost 3 years in prison for protesting the continued existence and threat of use of nuclear weapons by the US.