Update 7 August 1995

The fiftieth anniversary of the first nuclear bomb attack on Hiroshima marked a growing crescendo of protest against French plans to resume nuclear testing in the Pacific.

In the week leading up to Hiroshima Day, the Japanese Parliament unanimously condemned tests by both China and France, naming both states for the first time. (Diplomatic etiquette normally requires refering to countries simply as "a nuclear weapons state").

A row errupted in Europe as the acting President of the European Council, Spanish Foreign Minister Solana, backed France's position at an ASEAN meeting in Brunei, and said Asian nations' calls for an immediate end to testing were "unacceptable". Greenpeace called on European governments that had made strong statements domestically against French testing to clarify whether the the European Union was representing the views of Europeas, or the views of President Chirac.

Meanwhile on Hiroshima Day, public protest errupted globally. In Moscow, activists formed a peace symbol in Red Square, while demonstrators held vigils and demonstrations outside French embassies in from Budapest to Bonn and from Prague to Peru. In Paris, demonstrators gathered at the Eiffel Tower to call on "Hiro-Chirac" to stop the testing. In response, French politicians launched an offensive to try and halt the growing domestic tide of opinion against them, with the French Youth and Sports Minister writing to sports bodies urging them to "keep politics out of sport". Another minister floated the idea of having seven rather than eight tests, a notion which met a frosty response internationally. One New Zealand MP noted: "It's good news -- if it means that every week between now and September France cuts one test, then hopefully there will be none by the time they were due to start."

Finally, Japanese news reports quoted "informed sources" as suggesting that China might test around August 15th. Such a move would underline the fact that France's decision to resume testing has given comfort to other nuclear weapons states to continue with plans to test and modernise new nuclear weapons, betraying the pledges made at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty talks just three months ago.

Stephanie Mills