Press Release
Mayors for Peace exhibition visits Shetland
Shetland Islands Council Convenor Sandy Cluness will open an important travelling photographic exhibition that highlights the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings of August 1945 next Thursday 17 November at 11am. The exhibition will be open to the public in the Town Hall Council Chamber until 4pm on Friday 18 November. It will then be made available to Shetland junior high schools over the following weeks for educational purposes.
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb exhibitions have been developed by the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Museum and the Nagasaki Peace Museum to show the background to the bombings and above all the human effects of the bombings. They also highlight the work of Mayors for Peace and other groups in campaigning to see the abolition of such weapons. Some of the images are distressing and parental guidance is advised for younger children. The aim of the exhibition though is not to shock people but to educate them as to the dangers of nuclear weapons and to think about the issues of using them.
Shetland Islands Council has been a member of Mayors for Peace since April 2003. Mayors for Peace is an international Councils organisation, which is led by the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two cities in Japan that were decimated by the use of nuclear weapons in August 1945.
Rick Nickerson is the council’s Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) representative. He said:
“The use of nuclear weapons on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is an issue of great debate. Some argue it was justified because it helped to bring about the quick surrender of Japan and end the Second World War. Others say Japan was about to surrender and that the indiscriminate killing in two cities was as bad an event as was the holocaust.
“What is clear though is that for the 66 years since the bombings of August 6th and August 9th 1945 the fear of another nuclear weapons attack on another town or city has dominated foreign policy around the world. During the ‘Cold War’ between the Soviet Union and its allies and the United States, UK and its allies there were many times when a third nuclear attack looked very possible. Fortunately that has not happened, but the concerns that Iran and North Korea may be developing nuclear weapons still worry and alarm many people.”
Convenor Sandy Cluness said, “This exhibition is very important and personal to me. As a councillor, and as the Convenor of the Shetland Islands Council, I have been a strong and consistent supporter of its opposition to nuclear weapons and its long-held support for both Nuclear Free Local Authorities and Mayors for Peace.
"I hope many people in Shetland will take the time to view this exhibition. We plan for it to go on to a number of schools across Shetland and to organise a number of educational events for our schoolchildren.”