Posted on 7-8-2003
Hiroshima
Mayor Lashes Out at Bush on Atomic Bombing Anniversary
from Agence France Presse, 6 August 2003
HIROSHIMA, Japan - Hiroshima's mayor lashed out at the United
States' nuclear weapons policy during ceremonies marking the
58th anniversary of the city's atomic bombing, which caused
the deaths of over 230,000 people.
Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said the United States worshipped nuclear
weapons as "God" and blamed it for jeopardizing the
global nuclear non-proliferation regime. "The Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty, the central international agreement
guiding the elimination of nuclear weapons, is on the verge
of collapse," Akiba said Wednesday in an address to some
40,000 people. "The chief cause is US nuclear policy
that, by openly declaring the possibility of a pre-emptive nuclear
first strike and calling for resumed research into mini-nukes
and other so-called 'useable nuclear weapons,' appears to worship
nuclear weapons as God," he said.
The mayor also slammed as unjust the US-led war on Iraq, which
he blamed for killing innocent civilians. "The weapons
of mass destruction that served as the excuse for the war have
yet to be found," he said. Akiba strongly urged US
President George W. Bush and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il
to personally visit Hiroshima and "confront the reality
of nuclear war".
As the clock clicked onto 8:15 am (2315 GMT Tuesday), the exact
time the United States dropped the bomb on August 6, 1945, those
at the ceremony at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park bowed their
heads for a minute's silence in memory of the victims of the
attack. During the 45-minute ceremony, officials added 5,050
names to the register of victims who died immediately or from
the after-effects of radiation exposure in the bombing, bringing
the total toll to 231,920, an official said.
The Hiroshima bombing was followed by the dropping of a second
atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, which
killed another estimated 74,000 people.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told the service that Japan
would stick by its pacifist constitution and its non-nuclear
principles because the tragediiroshima and Nagasaki "can
never be repeated." This year's ceremony came ahead of
six-nation talks over North Korea's nuclear weapons development
program, which Pyongyang agreed to last week.
Koizumi told reporters after the ceremony that North Korea's
abduction of Japanese nationals would be a high priority at
the talks. "At the six-nation talks, obviously, nuclear
weapons will be the focus, but for Japan, the abduction issue
is just as important," he said. "We will naturally
have close cooperation with the United States and South Korea,
but we must make efforts to have China and Russia understand
our position as well," he said.
Last week, North Korea said it would accept six-way talks to
include North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the
United States to end the nuclear crisis that began in October
last year. Washington had accused the Stalinist state of reneging
on a 1994 bilateral nuclear freeze accord by running a clandestine
nuclear program based on enriched uranium.
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