According to a Kyodo News report some 700 peace activists left Tokyo on Friday for their annual walk to Hiroshima. The marchers plan to reach the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Aug 4, two days ahead of the anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing of the city.
Following the Fukushima disaster this year's march calls for a phase-out of nuclear power. The marchers call to promote the development of renewable energy. The event is sponsored by the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Gensuikyo) and other groups.
Among the marchers was Hiroshi Miura, a 51-year-old farmer from Fukushima Prefecture. Interviewd by Kyodo News he said ‘‘I lived some 11 kilometers away from the nuclear power plant, and lost my agricultural livelihood handed down from my parents…Nuclear power cannot coexist with humanity.’‘
The marchers departed from Daigo Fukuryu Maru Exhibition Hall, where the Japanese Lucky Dragon fishing boat hit by the 1954 U.S. hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll is on display.
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