Anti-nuclear protests

Main article: Anti-nuclear movement
The airburst nuclear explosion of July 1, 1946. Photo taken from a tower on Bikini Island, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) away.
Operation Crossroads Test Able, a 23-kiloton air-deployed nuclear weapon detonated on July 1, 1946. This bomb used, and consumed, the infamous Demon core that took the lives of two scientists in two separate criticality accidents.
Anti-nuclear demonstration in Colmar, north-eastern France, on October 3, 2009.
Deceased Liquidators' portraits used for an anti-nuclear power protest in Geneva.
Anti-nuclear movement
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Anti-nuclear protests began on a small scale in the U.S. as early as 1946 in response to Operation Crossroads.[1] Large scale anti-nuclear protests first emerged in the mid-1950s in Japan in the wake of the March 1954 Lucky Dragon Incident. August 1955 saw the first meeting of the World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, which had around 3,000 participants from Japan and other nations.[2] Protests began in Britain in the late 1950s and early 1960s.[3] In the United Kingdom, the first Aldermaston March, organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, took place in 1958.[4][5] In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, about 50,000 women brought together by Women Strike for Peace marched in 60 cities in the United States to demonstrate against nuclear weapons.[6][7] In 1964, Peace Marches in several Australian capital cities featured "Ban the Bomb" placards.[8][9]

Nuclear power became an issue of major public protest in the 1970s[10] and demonstrations in France and West Germany began in 1971. In France, between 1975 and 1977, some 175,000 people protested against nuclear power in ten demonstrations.[11] In West Germany, between February 1975 and April 1979, some 280,000 people were involved in seven demonstrations at nuclear sites.[11] Many mass demonstrations took place in the aftermath of the 1979 Three Mile Island accident and a New York City protest in September 1979 involved two hundred thousand people. Some 120,000 people demonstrated against nuclear power in Bonn, in October 1979.[11] In May 1986, following the Chernobyl disaster, an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people marched in Rome to protest against the Italian nuclear program,[12] and clashes between anti-nuclear protesters and police became common in West Germany.[13]

In the early 1980s, the revival of the nuclear arms race triggered large protests about nuclear weapons.[14] In October 1981 half a million people took to the streets in several cities in Italy, more than 250,000 people protested in Bonn, 250,000 demonstrated in London, and 100,000 marched in Brussels.[15] The largest anti-nuclear protest was held on June 12, 1982, when one million people demonstrated in New York City against nuclear weapons.[16][17][18] In October 1983, nearly 3 million people across western Europe protested nuclear missile deployments and demanded an end to the arms race; the largest crowd of almost one million people assembled in the Hague in the Netherlands.[19] In Britain, 400,000 people participated in what was probably the largest demonstration in British history.[20]

On May 1, 2005, 40,000 anti-nuclear/anti-war protesters marched past the United Nations in New York, 60 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[21][22] This was the largest anti-nuclear rally in the U.S. for several decades.[23] In 2005 in Britain, there were many protests about the government's proposal to replace the aging Trident weapons system with a newer model. The largest protest had 100,000 participants.[23] In May 2010, some 25,000 people, including members of peace organizations and 1945 atomic bomb survivors, marched from Lower Manhattan to the United Nations headquarters, calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.[24]

The 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents undermined the nuclear power industry's proposed renaissance and revived anti-nuclear passions worldwide, putting governments on the defensive.[25] There were large protests in Germany, India, Japan, Switzerland, and Taiwan.

  1. ^ Radio Bikini. DVD. Directed by Stone, Robert. Produced by Robert Stone Productions. 1988; New Video Group, 2003. www.imdb.com/title/tt0093817/
  2. ^ Trumbull, Robert. "Hiroshima Rally Splits on the U. S.: Leftist Meeting Cheers and Jeers as O. K. Armstrong Defends American Way." The New York Times. [New York, N.Y] 07 Aug 1955: 4.
  3. ^ David Cortright (2008). Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas, Cambridge University Press, pp. 134–135.
  4. ^ "A brief history of CND". Cnduk.org. Retrieved 2014-01-24.
  5. ^ "Early defections in march to Aldermaston". Guardian Unlimited. 1958-04-05.
  6. ^ Woo, Elaine (January 30, 2011). "Dagmar Wilson dies at 94; organizer of women's disarmament protesters". Los Angeles Times.
  7. ^ Hevesi, Dennis (January 23, 2011). "Dagmar Wilson, Anti-Nuclear Leader, Dies at 94". The New York Times.
  8. ^ Women with Ban the Bomb banner during Peace march on Sunday April 5th 1964, Brisbane, Australia. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
  9. ^ Girl with placard Ban nuclear tests during Peace march on Sunday April 5th 1964, Brisbane, Australia. Retrieved 8 February 2010.
  10. ^ Jim Falk (1982). Global Fission: The Battle Over Nuclear Power, Oxford University Press, pp. 95–96.
  11. ^ a b c Herbert P. Kitschelt. Political Opportunity and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 16, No. 1, 1986, p. 71.
  12. ^ Marco Giugni (2004). Social Protest and Policy Change: Ecology, Antinuclear, and Peace Movements in Comparative Perspective. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-7425-1827-8.
  13. ^ John Greenwald. Energy and Now, the Political Fallout, TIME, June 2, 1986.
  14. ^ Lawrence S. Wittner. "Disarmament movement lessons from yesteryear". Archived from the original on 2012-12-09. Retrieved 2010-03-30. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 27 July 2009.
  15. ^ David Cortright (2008). Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas, Cambridge University Press, p. 147.
  16. ^ Jonathan Schell. The Spirit of June 12 Archived 2009-12-04 at the Wayback Machine The Nation, July 2, 2007.
  17. ^ David Cortright (2008). Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas, Cambridge University Press, p. 145.
  18. ^ 1982 – a million people march in New York City Archived June 16, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ David Cortright (2008). Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas, Cambridge University Press, p. 148.
  20. ^ Lawrence S. Wittner (2009). Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement, Stanford University Press, p. 144.
  21. ^ Lance Murdoch. Pictures: New York MayDay anti-nuke/war march Archived 2011-07-28 at the Wayback Machine IndyMedia, 2 May 2005.
  22. ^ Anti-Nuke Protests in New York Fox News, May 2, 2005.
  23. ^ a b Lawrence S. Wittner. A rebirth of the anti-nuclear weapons movement? Portents of an anti-nuclear upsurge Archived 2010-06-19 at the Wayback Machine Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 7 December 2007.
  24. ^ Cite error: The named reference jpnews was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  25. ^ "Japan crisis rouses anti-nuclear passions globally". The Washington Post. March 16, 2011. Archived from the original on January 18, 2012.