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Anti-nuclear cyclists picket outside White House

Anti-nuclear cyclists picket the White House on Saturday, August 6, 2016.

Anti-nuclear cyclists have picketed outside the White House, in Washington DC on the 71st anniversary of the US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.

Some survivors of the Hiroshima bombing were also participating in the protest which was held on Saturday. Protesters were wearing t-shirts that read "Bike around the bomb."

"71 years ago today, we saw far too many lives in a moment of destruction that we can never allow to happen again," said Stephen Miles, Director of Win Without War, a national leader in the fight to promote a more progressive national security strategy. 

"Around the world there are 15,000 bombs, each far stronger than the one dropped on Hiroshima 71 years ago," Miles added.

"Ban all nuclear weapons or have a nice doomsday" said Toshiyuki Mimaki, a Hiroshima bombing survivor.

August 6 marks the time when a US B-29 bomber called the Enola Gay dropped the uranium bomb that exploded some 600 meters  above the city in 1945.

The attack was the world’s first nuclear bombing that killed more than 140,000 people. It was followed by another US atomic bombing on the port city of Nagasaki three days later, killing about 73, 000 people.

The twin bombings were the first and last time nuclear weapons were used as weapons during a war.

US President Barack Obama holds a minute of silence after placing a wreath at the cenotaph in the Peace Momorial park in Hiroshima on May 27, 2016 with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. (AFP photo)

On May 27, Barack Obama arrived in Hiroshima as the first sitting US president to visit the site of the bombing.

Obama has called for a world without nukes, but has so far refused to apologize for Washington’s decision to use a nuclear weapon against Japan.


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