Hiroshima to Urge Govt Forward for Nuke-Free World

August 1, 2018

Hiroshima- This year's Hiroshima peace declaration will urge the Japanese government to take action toward the realization of a nuclear-free world, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said Wednesday.

The declaration will call on the central government to play a part in advancing talks and cooperation to realize a world without nuclear weapons, according to an outline of the declaration announced by Matsui.

It will not include words directly requesting Japan to sign and ratify the U.N. nuclear weapons ban treaty adopted last year. But such a request "will be implied," he said.

Noting that the pact was adopted with approval from 122 countries, Matsui said that the tide is flowing toward the effectuation of the treaty.

He added that how Japan should handle the treaty will "be decided naturally."

The declaration will refer to the winning of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, and easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

While the declaration will note that the hopes of hibakusha atomic bomb survivors are spreading around the world, it will also highlight current conditions that could lead to strained relations similar to those during the Cold War, with the rise of national particularism, the modernization of nuclear weapons and other factors.

Matsui will read out the declaration at an annual peace memorial ceremony on Monday to mark the 73rd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japan city.

The United States also dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, southwestern Japan, on Aug. 9, 1945, in the closing days of World War II. Jiji Press