Hiroshima and Nagasaki vigils are not just about the pastSimon Barrow, SCND: AS communities across Scotland gather for vigils andlocal events marking the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombings ofHiroshima and Nagasaki, these remembrance activities across Scotland carrya sharp, pressing urgency. Weare staring at an existential threat of our own making which isexponentially more disastrous than what happened in 1945. As Kyoko Gibson,a second-generation hibakusha (survivor) from Hiroshima, starkly remindsus: “Under that mushroom cloud, rising out of a temperature of 5000C,some say 7000C, 70,000 people died instantly and many more afterwards. “As we know, water boils at 100C degrees and steel melts at 1500C. Withinfour months, 140,000 died and to this day people continue to die fromradiation-related illnesses.”