G8 speakers pay respects to bomb victims in significant visit to Hiroshima memorial

September 2, 2008
Today, a group of top legislators from the G8 countries paid their respects to the victims of nuclear warfare in a moving ceremony at the Hiroshima memorial in Japan.  The attendees were Nancy Pelosi, U.S. House Speaker, Peter Milliken, speaker of the House of Commons in Canada, Michael Martin, speaker of the British House of Commons, Gianfranco Fini, president of Italy's Chamber of Deputies, Bernard Accoyer, president of the French National Assembly, Norbert Lammert, president of the German Bundestag, Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, vice president of the European Parliament, Yohei Kono, speaker of Japan's House of Representatives, and Boris Gryzlov, chairman of the State Duma in Russia.
At the ceremony, schoolchildren waved the flags of Japan, the United States and other G8 nations and sang hymns calling for world peace after Pelosi and other parliament speakers offered flowers in honour of those killed in the bombing. Afterwards, the speakers headed to the Hiroshima bombing museum, where Hibakusha Akihiro Takahashi, 77, recounted his experience of living through the world's first nuclear attack. He later told reporters, referring to all the speakers and Nancy Pelosi in particular, what he had hoped to achieve by sharing his moving story:

"She is the number three person in line to press the nuclear button...For us atomic bombing victims, all nuclear weapons are evil. I really wanted to know how much they understood after seeing the museum and hearing my story," he said.

Please find below the AP article covering the G8 visit that appeared on various news-sites, including the Guardian (UK), the Miami Herald and the Washington Post.
Photo source: AP, from second left: Nancy Pelosi, Norbert Lammert, Boris Gryzlov, Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou and Bernard Accoyer.

By TOMOKO A. HOSAKA

Associated Press Writer

HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday became the highest-ranking serving American official to pay respects at the memorial site of the world's first atomic bomb attack.

Democrat Pelosi is in Japan for a two-day gathering of top legislators from the Group of Eight industrialized countries.

On Tuesday morning, she and the other G-8 representatives visited Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park before heading into an all-day meeting.

No sitting U.S. president or vice president has ever visited Hiroshima. As speaker of the House of Representatives, Pelosi is second in line to the presidency after U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter stopped by the memorial in 1984, after his presidency, but he did not visit in any official capacity.

Genyu Izawa, a Buddhist priest, stood by as each of the G-8 officials laid flowers at the arch-shaped monument inside of which a stone chest holds the names of bomb victims.

``As a Japanese, I am grateful that they are thinking about this and have all gathered here, the site of the atomic bombing,'' said Izawa, who traveled from Tokyo to show his support to Pelosi for her longtime commitment to Tibet issues.

An estimated 140,000 people were killed instantly or died within a few months after an American B-29 bomber dropped its lethal payload on Aug. 6, 1945.

Three days later on Aug. 9, 1945, the U.S. dropped a nuclear bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000 people. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II.

Japan, which adopted a pacifist constitution after the war, has since become one of the staunchest opponents of nuclear proliferation.

At a ceremony last month marking the 63rd anniversary of the bombing, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba urged the next U.S. president to support a proposed ban on nuclear weapons. And Japan submitted a resolution in the United Nations last year calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Akiba said 170 nations supported it, with the U.S. one of only three countries opposed.

The gathering of G-8 officials in Hiroshima will focus on peace and disarmament, but is not expected to result in any major agreements or statements.

Sadami Naganishi, 73, of Hiroshima said she hopes their visit to the city is a step forward in ridding the world of nuclear weapons.

``I hope they see what happened here, and take that back to their countries,'' said Naganishi, whose father died of a bomb-related illness several years after the war.