Bird Childs and Goldsmith Greenham Page Two

Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki - 60 Years on by Thalia Campbell

The first time I was aware of the two Nuclear bombs being dropped on Japan was when as a child of eight my Grandmother wrote letters to the newspapers on her old typewriter in her bed sit in our large Victorian house in Torquay and probably also to Freddy Grisewood's 'Any Questions'. I only took her ancient Typewriter to the tip when we moved three years ago.
The Hiroshima bomb was Uranium and the Nagasaki bomb was Plutonium. There are still debates going on whether the second bomb was needed, or an American experiment to see the difference or to frighten the Russians who were about to invade the Far East.
In the 1950's as a student I read in the news papers and listened on the radio to reports of CND demonstrating against Nuclear weapons. I remember the 90 year old Bertrand Russell demonstrating in Trafalgar Square and going to prison and the Committee of One hundred demonstrating at Greenham Common in the 1960's being piled into removal vans by the police, positively charming and amateur to what happens now.
In the 1960's as a young family we were living in the shadow of the new nuclear plant being built at Hinckley Point. In amongst all the excitement of the new jobs coming to the area I don't think I was the only one who worried about the safety of my preschool children. We were thinking about buying an idyllic thatched cottage in the shadow of the growing Nuclear Plant but in the end glad to move away to Southampton.
With my teenage children in the late 1970's I once again found myself under threat from the nuclear industry when living in Corris N. Wales. The Government was planning four nuclear dumps in Wales. The plan near us was to fill the empty Slate Quarries with Nuclear waste, almost in our back garden. The whole Community was out in protest. Entire villages turned out to Public meetings, and took part in direct actions. Julie Christie took a leading role. When the English Government Scientists came to check out the nuclear dump sites, They were blockaded in their Bed and Breakfasts by local cars. When they went to ask for help from the local welsh police they were always too busy to sort out this difficulty. When the English scientists got up in the hills to do their job they were surrounded by Welsh farmers in their land rovers with their dogs and guns and could not do their work. Finally after 18 months of more direct action Michael Heseltine announced in Parliament that Wales was not a suitable place to dump Nuclear waste.
People at the other planned nuclear dump site were worried too and out of all this came Nuclear Free Wales where all Councils voted to be Nuclear free, AND the march to Greenham Common. Ann Pettitt in Carmarthenshire had been protesting against the dumping and when we won she had the idea of marching to Greenham to protest about the first strike Nuclear cruise missiles soon to arrive from the USA. That's a whole other story.
Hibuksha, victims of those two nuclear bombs on Japan came to Wales in the 1980s to tell us their story.
In the mid 1980s there was Chernobyl. Friends had a Geiger counter we were sharing to test our surrounds for radioactivity. We were in our garden at the time of Chernobyl using it and wondering about our high readings!!! There are still farms in Wales unable to sell their sheep now.
To commemorate 40 years since Hiroshima Justine Merritt a retired American teacher organized the US Peace Ribbon Project of tea towel sized art works depicting
"What I cannot bear to think of as lost for ever in a nuclear war" to be wrapped around the Pentagon. The project ended with Washington brought to a standstill with 17 miles of Ribbon pieces.
To day we are planning a new generation of Nuclear weapons whilst asking other countries to stop their nuclear ambitions.
For evil to Flourish all it needs is for good people to do nothing