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Anti-nuclear cyclists picket outside White House

Sunday, 07 August 2016 5:01 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 07 August 2016 7:48 AM ]

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.