On Aug. 6, 1945, a single atomic bomb rendered Hiroshima a scorched plain and burned tens of thousands in its flames.
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Matsui said in a Peace Declaration read at the city’s annual memorial ceremony that all world leaders should visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to “etch the reality of the atomic bombings in each (leader’s) heart”, as The Japan Times reported.
Matsui addresed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was at the ceremony, saying that “a nuclear-weapon-free-world would manifest the noble pacifism of the Japanese constitution”.
Matsui urged Abe to maintain the determination showed during Obama’s historic visit to strive towards a world free of nuclear weapons.
Many young people, who did not grow up in the shadow of World War II or during the Cold War don’t understand the threat of nuclear weapons, said Cohen-Odiaga, a coordinator of Global Zero Boston, the group that organized the Sunday bike ride.
Hiroshima’s mayor has called for the abolition of nuclear weapons, as Japan observes the 71st anniversary of the USA atomic bombing of the city. There is certainly, in the minds of the media and the American public, no taboo on using nuclear weapons, and it all started, but did not end, with Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In addition to the brutality of the bombings, many attendees Saturday cited Hiroshima as the catalyst for nuclear proliferation today.
Dr. Gloria Montebruno Saller with atomic bomb survivor Junji Sarashina.
Once the scale of destruction became known, the official justification for the atomic bombings shifted to claiming that they were necessary to avoid a USA invasion of Japan and the associated loss of life on both sides.
“I hope many countries will negotiate in their efforts toward the elimination of nuclear weapons”, said the high school student.
The names of 5,511 victims whose deaths were confirmed in the past year were added to the list at the cenotaph for atomic-bomb victims.
Lok Sabha today paid homage to the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings in Japan in 1945.
Many in Japan believe that the USA nuclear attacks amount to war crimes as they targeted civilians.
The group was founded amid growing anti-nuclear sentiment in Japan after the tuna fishing boat Fukuryu Maru No. 5, also known as the Lucky Dragon, was exposed to radioactive fallout in the Pacific following a USA hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands on March 1, 1954.
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Abe a year ago faced harsh criticism, especially from A-bomb survivors, for his policy of expanding the role of Japan’s military and opening the door to possibly sending troops into combat for the first time since the war.
