Hiroshima & Nagasaki, August 9th 2011 - This year both the Hiroshima and the Nagasaki Peace Declarations mark a shift in the position of the two A-bombed cities towards nuclear energy. The policy shift comes in the middle of the Fukushima nuclear crisis that continues to haunt Japan and the world.
Both Mayor Matsui and Mayor Taue renewed their call to work towards establishing a world free of nuclear weapons by 2020. Government representatives from 68 countries attended the Hiroshima peace ceremony. This year a U.S. representative attended the Nagasaki peace ceremony for the first time. The U.S. bomb ''Little Boy'' killed 140,000 people in 1945 alone in Hiroshima. Three days later ''Fat Man'' killed 80,000 people in Nagasaki.
In a reference to Mayors for Peace Mayor Matsui declared: ''Hiroshima will pour everything we have into working, along with Nagasaki, to expand Mayors for Peace such that all cities, those places around the world where people gather, will strive together to eliminate nuclear weapons by 2020. Moreover, we want all countries, especially the nuclear-armed states, including the United States of America, which continues its subcritical nuclear testing and related experiments, to pursue enthusiastically a process that will abolish nuclear weapons. To that end, we plan to host an international conference that will bring the world’s policymakers to Hiroshima to discuss the nuclear non-proliferation regime.''
In an article published in Mainichi newspaper on August 5th, Mayor Matsui explained in greater depth the idea of hosting an international conference. "... it is important to take various actions to invite the leaders of the nuclear powers and numerous people both from Japan and abroad to visit Hiroshima and have them share our longing for peace. To achieve this goal, we would like to aim to host the 2015 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in Hiroshima'' and continued ''In addition to these efforts, we will continue to cooperate with approximately 4,900 cities all over the world that are members of Mayor for Peace, including Nagasaki, in nurturing international public opinion in favor of the elimination of nuclear weapons to do our best to achieve nuclear disarmament by 2020.''
In Hiroshima, Prime Minister Kan repeated his call for an energy review and vowed to challenge ''the safety myth of nuclear power''. Mayor Kazumi Matsui called for an energy review and stopped short from calling for a nation without nuclear power while reiterating his pledge to work toward a world without atomic weapons. Mayor Matsui acknowledged that the trust people had in the safety of nuclear power had been damaged: "Some seek to abandon nuclear power altogether with the belief that Mankind cannot co-exist with nuclear energy, while others demand stricter regulation of nuclear power and more renewable energy"
During the Nagasaki Ceremony today Mayor Tomihisa Taue called on Japan to change its nuclear policy and reject not just atomic weapons but also nuclear power - as decades-old fears of radiation sickness were renewed in by the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster following a massive earthquake and tsunami.
In an article in the Mainichi Daily News published yesterday, the Mayor of Nagasaki reinforced the calls made in Hiroshima: ''Since the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant began, I have wondered constantly, "What mistakes did we make, where did we make them, and why?" I have thought not just about factors directly related to the nuclear plant, such as its location or safety, but also about possible causes in our society or ways of thinking. One of them is the problem of myths. The myth that nuclear plants are completely safe has crumbled''.
Referring to the bombing of 66 years ago, Mayor Taue continues: '' However, Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been fighting with a different myth for over half a century: that the United States was justified in dropping the atomic bombs because they saved more lives than they took. Journalist Akira Naka shows that this myth is not based in fact in his book "Mokusatsu" (Ignore by silence), but it is nonetheless still vigorously propagated''.
The Nagasaki Peace Declaration also repeated the call to negotiate a Nuclear Weapons Convention to eliminate all nuclear weapons and called for the Japanese government to strongly promote such efforts, as the government of the only nation which has endured atomic bombings.
Mayor Taue used his global platform to encourage cities everywhere to make use of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki exhibition, "This year, at the United Nations Office in Geneva, the city of Nagasaki will exhibit materials concerning the catastrophes of the atomic bombings, in cooperation with the United Nations, the Japanese government and the city of Hiroshima. We hope that many people around the world learn about the atrocity and cruelty of the devastation by the atomic bombings.''
''We encourage all of you who seek “a world without nuclear weapons” to also organize an atomic bombing exhibition, even if it is a small-scale event, in your own cities in cooperation with Nagasaki. We look forward to photography panels of the atomic bombings being exhibited in streets all over the world. It is our hope that you join hands with people from the atomic-bombed cities and extend the circle of peace so all people can live a humane life. "
In another major development, the survivors of the A-bomb (Hibakusha) also turned for the first time against nuclear power. Nihon Hidankyo, an atomic bomb victims' organization, historically called for the prevention of nuclear war and the elimination of nuclear weapons. Even after the accidents at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, their statements were limited to occasional and unemphatic calls for better safety testing and research of nuclear power plants. Haunted by the radiation released by Fukushima, they have now also turned against nuclear power.
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