York Guides

Julie Hemmings (Yorkshire Post)
MILLIONS of people around the globe will join vigils for peace today on the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb.

Thousands of Japanese peace activists will march through Hiroshima to commemorate the anniversary and call for a global ban on nuclear weapons.
More than 50,000 people are expected to gather in the city's Peace Memorial Park for a moment of silence at 8.15am – when on August 6, 1945, the US bomber Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb that obliterated the centre of the city and killed at least 140,000 people.
The act of unprecedented man-made devastation, followed three days later by the bombing of Nagasaki, and the deaths of 80,000 more, hastened the end of the Second World War, Japan surrendering on August 15.
Among those observing the Hiroshima anniversary will be hundreds of Quakers in York, during their annual gathering at York University.
Some 250 young Quakers last night held a "peace witness" in memory of the victims of the bombing and to reflect on what peace means to them today.
Timed at 9pm to coincide with the mid-point of the bomb's journey between the United States and Japan at 5am Japanese time, the witness included the lighting of candles and the traditional Japanese way of remembering – writing messages of peace on origami paper, folded into boats, which they then set sail on the university lake.
Under-19 co-ordinator Jane Dawson said: "Even though the young Quakers were not alive when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the young Quakers will have spent a week being exposed to Quaker peace witness, past and present.
"This will be an opportunity for them to show what peace witness means to them today by reflecting on events that happened long ago but are still relevant."
Hiroshima is hosting the World Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs and its mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, an outspoken opponent of American President George Bush, is the main speaker.
In the week when Iran threatened to resume its nuclear programme, the mayor is expected to call on the United States and other nuclear powers to abolish their arsenals.
Though the world conference, which takes place each year, is sponsored mainly by left-wing or labour groups, it has a broad appeal within the Japanese population and the organisers have collected 8.5 million signatures supporting a nuclear ban.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is expected to attend today's memorial, which will be the culmination of smaller events over the past month in the park.
As emotions run high ahead of the anniversary, a man was arrested last week after defacing a war memorial in the park.
He was reportedly angry at an inscription which
suggested Japan was partially to blame for bring-
ing the devastation of Hiroshima on itself because of its military campaigns in Asia.