Hiroshima calls for nuke-free world on atomic bombing anniversary

August 6, 2017

HIROSHIMA- Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui called for further global efforts to abolish nuclear weapons as the western Japan city marked the 72nd anniversary of the US atomic bombing on Sunday. In a speech delivered at an annual memorial ceremony, Matsui noted that 122 countries last month adopted a treaty banning nuclear weapons to demonstrate "their unequivocal determination to achieve abolition."

"Given this development, the governments of all countries must now strive to advance further toward a nuclear-weapon-free world," Matsui said in his annual Peace Declaration.

He called on policymakers to respect their differences and "make good-faith efforts to overcome them."

"To this end, it is vital that you deepen your awareness of the inhumanity of nuclear weapons, consider the perspectives of other countries, and recognize your duty to build a world where all thrive together," he said.

The mayor urged the Japanese government to do everything in its power to bridge gaps between nuclear and nonnuclear weapon states to facilitate the ratification of the treaty, which is not joined by nuclear umbrella states, including Japan, as well as nuclear states.

Participants to the ceremony, held at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, offered a minute of silence at 8:15 a.m. (11:15 p.m. Saturday GMT), the exact time when the US atomic bomb was dropped on the city on Aug. 6, 1945.

The ceremony was joined by about 50,000 people, including hibakusha atomic bomb survivors and bereaved families of victims as well as representatives from 80 countries and the European Union. Jiji Press