Hiroshima: 'Stop ignoring our plea'


'Stop ignoring our plea,' Hiroshima told world leaders yesterday, according to Asahi:

Calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons across the globe, Tadatoshi Akiba, the mayor of this Seto Inland Sea city, described the scene of Aug. 6, 1945, as "hell on Earth."

Yet, he told the roughly 45,000 people gathered at the park near ground zero, the world's political leaders continue to ignore the voices of "conscience"--the many people worldwide who campaign year after year for nuclear weapons to be stamped out.

"Radiation, heat, the blast and their combined effects created a hell on Earth," said Akiba in a Peace Declaration. "Is it acceptable for cities, and especially the innocent children who live in them, to be targeted by nuclear weapons?"

The Japan Times also notes that 1,400 member cities of the Mayors for Peace organization has launched a campaign to promote the world court's recommendation and a project to demand nuclear-weapon states rule out cities as targets of nuclear attack. The Mayors for Peace organization hopes to realize a nuclear-free world by 2020.

Meanwhile, in its editorial, the conservative Daily Yomiuri thinks Hiroshima's peace declaration skirts the new nuclear threat from countries like North Korea.

(Photo: Kyodo Photo/The Japan Times)

Comments

Pandabonium said…
Proliferation of nuclear weapons is getting scary. The US is even talking openly about using "tactical" nuclear weapons pre-emptively.

Perhaps the greatest irony is Japan's own 40 metric ton stockpile of plutonium which continues to grow, far exceeding any power plant needs.
9:13 am, August 08, 2006
Martin J Frid said…
Thanks for the comment.

Citizen's Nuclear Information Center has a great newsletter about Japan's nuclear reactors, and good updates about the plutonium problem you mention:

http://cnic.jp/english/
9:29 pm, August 09, 2006
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