[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 111 (Friday, August 7, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1591-E1592]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              53RD COMMEMORATION OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BARBARA LEE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, August 6, 1998

  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, today, we solemnly commemorate the 53rd 
anniversary of the uranium bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and, 
three days later, the plutonium bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.
  The August 6th bombing was a shocking and tragic event; the second 
bombing three days later was no less cataclysmic. Now, 53 years later, 
for those of us who dare to look into the pit of this, our historical 
act, we can see the impact and the aftermath of the bombings and their 
implications in the arenas of defense and arms control, international 
relations, and human rights. As we commemorate these two events, it is 
not only to remember; we must also call upon ourselves to say to 
ourselves, to our neighbors, and to our children: Never again.
  Today we must also recognize those heroes and heroines who called our 
attention to the danger of strontium 90 distributed in our air--
strontium 90 released into our atmosphere during the testing of ever 
more powerful nuclear weapons. These pioneers in the anti-nuclear 
movement helped to create a force that alerted people all over the 
world to the incredible menace of an arsenal of over 36,000 nuclear 
weapons.
  Thankfully, the cold war is over. But the danger of nuclear war, of 
nuclear accidents, or of nuclear terrorism, is as real as it was during 
the long cold war. The United States had 6 nuclear warheads at the end 
of 1945. We now have 12,000. The USSR, now Russia and the Ukraine, had 
one warhead in 1949, and now have 23,000. In 1953, the United Kingdom 
had its first nuclear weapon; now, the nation has 260.
  France built 4 in 1964 and now has 450. China also built its first in 
1964, and now has 400. Today we have definitive proof that India and 
Pakistan have nuclear bombs. Israel, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, and other 
nations appear poised to inform us that they, too, belong to the 
``club.''
  It is extremely difficult to contemplate any level of normalcy when 
we consider the implications and the threat that these weapons pose, 
the constant and ever-present possibility that something, or a 
combination of somethings, might go terribly wrong once again.
  The New England Journal of Medicine, in its April 30, 1998 issue, 
gave a special report on

[[Page E1592]]

``accidental nuclear war--a post-cold war assessment.'' I want to share 
with you some of their results and conclusions:
  ``U.S. and Russian nuclear-weapons systems remain on high alert. This 
fact, combined with the aging of Russian technical systems, has 
recently increased the risk of an accidental nuclear attack. As a 
conservative estimate, an accidental, intermediate-sized launch of 
weapons from a single Russian submarine would result in the death of 
[almost] 7 million people from firestorms in 8 U.S. cities. Millions of 
others would [probably] be exposed to potentially lethal radiation from 
fallout. An agreement to remove all nuclear missiles from high-level 
alert status and eliminate the capability of a rapid launch would put 
an end to this threat.''
  Part of their conclusion is that ``the risk of an accidental nuclear 
attack has increased in recent years, threatening a public health 
disaster of unprecedented scale.''
  I am one of three cosponsors of H. Con. Res. 307, a bill that 
proposes to address this most serious of issues. Our bill proclaims 
that it is in the best interest of the nation and the world to ban 
nuclear tests forever. The bill directs the Department of Energy, which 
has the responsibility for stewardship of the nuclear stockpile, to 
develop a program that is less costly, less provocative, and less 
likely to spend billions on facilities with little relevance to the 
safety of the arsenal.
  On this day, let us recall and celebrate that our collective efforts 
to achieve peace have prevented the unleashing of further, nuclear 
horrors like those seen 53 years ago in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet on 
this day in particular, let us be reminded that we must keep on working 
to educate ourselves and our society, and continue to make advances 
toward total nuclear disarmament.

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