Candle boats to remember nuclear dead

MEMBERS of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) gathered together for the 24th annual Hiroshima remembrance ceremony.

Around 50 CND members and friends met by the bridge at Shoreham as children helped launch paper boats holding lighted candles down the River Darent, in memory of those who died when nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

CND member Rosemary Meakins said the event at 8.30pm on Wednesday last week went very well and was very peaceful.

"The candles were there to remember, but also as symbols of hope for a more peaceful world," she said.

Mrs Meakins added: "We are very lucky that we have not been rained off in 24 years. Especially this time as the thunder storm began as I was driving home."

The sum of £144.72 was raised for the Chernobyl Children's Project at the event.

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima took place on August 6 1945. Nagasaki was bombed three days later.

The bombings were ordered by US president Harry S Truman.

The bombs killed 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki.