Nagasaki Mayor Seeks Joint Action toward Nuclear-Free World

Nagasaki, Aug. 9 (Jiji Press)--Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue asked people throughout the world Sunday to support U.S. President Barack Obama's call for "a world without nuclear weapons" and take steps together toward the goal.

At a ceremony marking the 64th anniversary of the U.S. atomic
bombing of this southwestern Japan city, Taue said Obama showed his "strong
determination" to eliminate nuclear weapons from the world in his speech
given in Prague in April.
This has "profoundly moved people in Nagasaki," Taue said in the
Nagasaki Peace Declaration read out at the ceremony, which brought together
hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors, bereaved relatives of bomb victims and
top politicians including Prime Minister Taro Aso and Democratic Party of
Japan President Yukio Hatoyama.
Taue denounced North Korea for carrying out its second nuclear test
in May and asked all nuclear powers including the United States and Russia
to reduce their nuclear arsenals.
As the world's only nation attacked with nuclear bombs, Japan "must
play a leading role" in international efforts to abolish nuclear weapons,
Taue said.
To leaders of the world, including those of countries having or
suspected of having nuclear weapons, such as Obama, Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev and North Korea's Kim Jong Il, Taue asked, "Visit Nagasaki, a city
that suffered nuclear destruction." Taue said the leaders should visit
the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and stand at the site of nuclear
devastation, where the bones of numerous victims are still buried.
Nagasaki is one of the only two A-bombed cities in the world along
with Hiroshima, western Japan. The two cities were hit by the U.S. bombs on
Aug. 6 and 9, 1945, respectively.
At the ceremony, which started at 10:40 a.m. (1:40 a.m. GMT), the
names of 3,304 hibakusha who died in the past year were added to the list of
Nagasaki atomic bomb victims. The death toll thus reached 149,266.
Participants offered one minute's silent prayer for the victims
from 11:02 a.m., the time when the bomb was dropped toward the city 64 years
ago.
Following Taue, hibakusha Ayako Okumura, 72, whose family members
were all killed by the bomb, spoke about her experience. She said the world
has no use at all for nuclear weapons, which only create pains and anguish
that do not disappear even after decades pass.
Prime Minister Aso said Japan will maintain its principles of not
possessing, producing or allowing the entry of nuclear weapons into the
nation, and spearhead global efforts toward a nuclear-free world and
permanent peace.