Mayor of Nagasaki, First Vice President of Mayors for Peace, assassinated

April 18, 2007

Mayor Iccho Itoh was brutal shot and killed while campaigning for a fourth term as Mayor of Nagasaki. Condolences on his death have been streaming into Mayors for Peace from all corners of the world.  We anticipate that a website will be created to memorialize this leader in the fight to abolish nuclear weapons, meanwhile condolences should be sent to this email address: hisho@city.nagasaki.lg.jp .  We publish below the messages from the President of Mayors for Peace and the UN Secretary General.

President's Remembrance

I prayed wholeheartedly for his recovery, but just received the report of his passing. I am filled with profound sorrow and outrage. The use of violence to suppress political activities is an obvious threat to democracy and cannot be tolerated. For 12 years, since taking office as the mayor of Nagasaki in 1995, Mayor Itoh served as vice president of Mayors for Peace. As mayors of A-bombed cities, we worked together to persuade the world to abolish nuclear weapons and build genuine and lasting peace.

At the NPT Review Conference in New York in 2000, Mayor Itoh represented Mayors for Peace with an eloquent speech at UN headquarters, then met with many government representatives to defend the absolute necessity of total nuclear weapons abolition. In part because of his efforts, the final document from that conference included "an unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear-weapon States to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals."

Five years later, at the NPT Review Conference in 2005, he participated in a Mayors for Peace delegation that included the representatives of 80 cities. He helped to lead 40,000 people gathered from around the world on a march through the streets of New York. He again rose before world leaders to forcefully present the expectations of the A-bombed cities. I will never forget the bold resolve with which he worked to abolish nuclear weapons, and I find it extremely painful to imagine about how he must feel about having been cut down before the job was done.

I vow to inherit his passion and, working with the 1,608 members of Mayors for Peace, do everything in my power to bring about the truly peaceful, nuclear-weapon-free world he so strongly desired. I hereby express my great respect and admiration for Mayor Itoh's achievements and offer my heartfelt condolences and prayers for his peaceful repose.

April 18, 2007
Tadatoshi Akiba Mayor of Hiroshima President, Mayors for Peace

United Nations

The Secretary-General has learned with shock and regret of the assassination of Mayor Iccho Itoh of Nagasaki. As Mayor of the second city that had been destroyed by atomic weapons in 1945, Mayor Itoh was a champion of peace for a world where nuclear war would never happen again. He was a leader in the international campaign of more than 1600 Mayors for Peace, calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons by the year 2020. The Secretary-General expresses his deepest condolences to his family and friends, to the citizens of Nagasaki and Japan, to the many who work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Statement attributable to the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on the death of Mayor Itoh of Nagasaki