80th Anniversary of Hiroshima & Nagasaki Bombings

80th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings

Canada, August 6, 2025 - It is 80 years since the world witnessed the incomparable horror of nuclear weapons. While many resolved that this should never happen again, we find ourselves in a world that daily plans nuclear destruction on a global scale. We are mollified by those who oversee these plans that they are unlikely to carry them out. We are told that this is how the world is kept safe, global peace and security are guaranteed, and wars are prevented.

It is quite clear that this is a fairy tale.

Wars are not being prevented.

The increasing number of conflicts around the world stand in mute testimony with billions whose health and wellbeing, directly or indirectly, are affected.

However, these days nuclear weapons are not front of mind. They have not been used in 80 years. They appear an abstract threat in a world that is beset by a polycrisis that needs attention in real time. Humanity has overshot the planet’s capacity to support itself and we struggle to share shrinking resources in a just and equitable fashion.

But nuclear weapons do matter.

They could be used. They are ready to go. A sword of Damocles over us all. The international framework that attempted to control, reduce, and eventually disarm is dismantled or ignored.

More importantly, these weapons siphon resources, human and material, away from efforts to address the polycrisis. Poverty, access to medical care, hunger, climate mitigation and so many more pressing concerns struggle to get the resources commensurate with needs.

Simply put, we can not afford to continue to use violence to manage conflict. Nuclear weapons are the worst symptom of this policy. In 2022, the world spent over 2 trillion dollars on its militaries. This level of spending could meet all the Sustainable Development Goals that so many are working so hard to achieve a world that is healthier and happier.

We live in a culture of war, we find it hard to imagine how we could live together in peace. Yet, increasingly we are beginning to recognize that this is essential if we are to solve the multiple challenges humanity faces.

We can not let nuclear weapons continue to threaten our very existence as we continue to work together to solve the challenges we face.

But they do.

They must be banned. More than half of the world supports the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), an international treaty to abolish nuclear weapons. But those who have them and those who shelter behind.

them (including Canada) are afraid of losing the power, security and influence that these weapons supposedly provide.

This security is a mirage. True security is based on trust, respect and a framework of law and order that is seen as legitimate.

80 years on the nuclear threat make the world less safe than it has ever been. We owe it to the thousands whose lives were taken and the diminishing number of precious survivors, the hibakusha, to do better.

For the health of everyone and this planet, we must do so much better.

Respectfully submitted.

Dr. John Guilfoyle (MD, CCFP, FCF)

President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Canada.