Consider a shocking reality: Today, 70 years after the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Red Cross hospitals are still treating thousands of survivors for the aftereffects of radiation and nearly two-thirds of deaths among them are due to cancer. Yet the two nuclear bombs that caused such untold human suffering and devastation were small compared to most of the bombs in the arsenals of nuclear states today.

What more compelling argument could there be, therefore, for the international community to redouble its failing efforts to secure a timetable to prohibit the use of and ensure the complete elimination of nuclear weapons? Before it is too late.

The horror that inhabitants of these two cities felt as loved ones were incinerated and the injured searched in vain for medical care makes this commemoration a deeply emotional event in itself.