Danger of nuclear war gets worldwide recognition on stamps

Seventy-five years ago today, the second of two atomic bombs used in World War II detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, ultimately claiming between 39,000 and 80,000 lives. Historians and analysts estimate that between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of them civilians, died in the two bombings. The first use of an atomic weapon in war occurred at Hiroshima three days earlier, Aug. 6, 1945. The horrific events ushered the end of the long war. A nuclear arms race between the former Soviet Union and the United States soon developed, lasting into the 1970s. By the 1960s, though, diplomats worldwide thought it prudent to seek limits on nuclear arsenals and began negotiating key arms limitation agreements. However, arms control may be coming to an end as only one pact remains between the U.S. and Russia: the New Strategic Arms Reduction Limitation Treaty. It will expire in February unless the nations agree to a five-year extension. Of course, there is a philatelic connection to disarmament. The U.N. Postal Administration issued a 5-cent stamp in 1964 marking the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The pact was hailed then as a first step toward controlling nuclear weapons. Eight years later, the United Nations issued two stamps — one for use at U.N. headquarters in New York and another for offices in Geneva — commemorating the landmark Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Entered into force in 1970, the agreement aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and nuclear technology. Other disarmament-themed stamps from the UNPA have since followed. The U.S. has kept a low profile on issues related to nuclear weapons. A 3-cent Atoms for Peace stamp appeared in 1955. Experts and historians regard President Dwight Eisenhower's program of the same name a propaganda component of the Cold War strategy of "containment" of the Soviet Union. A 4-cent stamp from 1962 honored Connecticut Sen. Brien McMahon, who introduced the Atomic Energy Act following World War II. The law established the Atomic Energy Commission and transferred the nation's atomic energy program from military to civilian control. More than two dozen countries have commemorated efforts to limit nuclear weapons on their stamps and postmarks. A series of slogan cancels in Poland during the 1950s called for nuclear disarmament. Whether their message was serious or a part of Soviet-era propaganda, they still are some of the earliest postal-related efforts urging an end to the burgeoning arms race. Mexico released a stamp in 1977 to mark the 10th anniversary of the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which prohibits nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean. The regional accord was the first of its kind. Today, about 40 percent of the world's population lives in nuclear weapons-free zones. The Marshall Islands, the site of bomb testing early in the nuclear age, has issued several stamps calling attention to the dangers and injustices stemming from the development of weapons of mass destruction. A pane of six semi-postal stamps with accompanying selvage from the U.S.-affiliated state tells the story of the 1946 evacuation of Bikini Atoll residents to allow for nuclear tests under Operation Crossroads. The 1996 set raised funds for the families who were forcibly relocated. Other countries have issued stamps calling for full disarmament or promoted the goal of a nuclear-free world. They include Kazakhstan in 2012 for the International Conference for a Nuclear Weapons Free World; Egypt in 1996 commemorating the African Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone Treaty conference in Cairo; New Zealand marking its status as a nuclear-free state several times; and Rwanda in 1966 warning of nuclear war in a set of six stamps showing a man holding a child amidst as warplanes drop bombs. The British Nuclear Tests Veterans Association has assembled a simple catalog of nuclear disarmament-themed stamps. Picturing stamps alphabetically from Aitutaki to Vietnam, Cinderella stamps and historical information, it is online at www.ilpostalista.it/catalogonucleare.pdf. Sadowski can be reached at sadowski.dennis@gmail.com CUTLINES Credit: PHOTOS PROVIDED MARSHALL ISLANDS A pane of six semipostal stamps from the Marshall Islands in 1996 marked the 50th anniversary of Operation Crossroads, a nuclear weapons testing program of the United States. It raised funds for Marshallese people forcible removed from their homes for the tests. UN TEST BAN The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was honored in a 1964 stamp from the United Nations Postal Administration. UN NPT The Treaty for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons was noted on two stamps from 1972 by the United Nations Postal Administration. RWANDA Rwanda released a set of six stamps in 1966 calling for full nuclear disarmament, pointing to the danger nuclear weapons pose to the world. NEW ZEALAND New Zealand issued a stamp in 1987 marking passage of the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act.