Mayor Vows to Pass On Hiroshima’s Tragedy to Younger Generations

August 6, 2018

Hiroshima- Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui on Monday pledged to continue passing on to younger generations the experience of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japan city.

"If the human family forgets history or stops confronting it, we could again commit a terrible error," Matsui said in this year's peace declaration, read out at a ceremony to mark the 73rd anniversary of the bombing. "That is precisely why we must continue talking about Hiroshima."

The ceremony, held in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, was attended by some 50,000 people, including hibakusha atomic bomb survivors, bereaved families, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other government officials, as well as representatives of 85 countries and the European Union.

Izumi Nakamitsu, U.N. undersecretary-general and high representative for disarmament affairs who played a leading role in realizing the adoption of the U.N. nuclear ban treaty in July last year, joined the ceremony for the second consecutive year.

At 8:15 a.m. (11:15 p.m. Sunday GMT), the exact time when the U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, citizens including a representative of the bereaved families tolled a Peace Bell and participants offered a minute of silence.

"Nuclear deterrence and nuclear umbrellas flaunt the destructive power of nuclear weapons and seek to maintain international order by generating fear in rival countries. This approach to guaranteeing long-term security is inherently unstable and extremely dangerous," the mayor said.

"World leaders must have this reality etched in their hearts as they negotiate in good faith the elimination of nuclear arsenals, which is a legal obligation under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty," he continued.

"Furthermore, they must strive to make the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons a milestone along the path to a nuclear-weapon-free world," he added.

"I ask the Japanese government to manifest the magnificent pacifism of the Japanese constitution in the movement toward the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons by playing its proper role, leading the international community toward dialogue and cooperation for a world without nuclear weapons," he also said.

In a speech during the ceremony, Abe said, "I'm determined to bridge nuclear and nonnuclear weapon states and lead international efforts."

As in the previous year, he stopped short of mentioning the nuclear weapons ban treaty, only saying that a gap has emerged among countries over how to advance nuclear disarmament.

During the ceremony, a list of the names of 5,393 hibakusha who died in the past year was put into a monument. The total death toll thus rose to 314,118.

The number of people certified as hibakusha stood at 154,859 across the country at the end of March this year, according to the health ministry. Their average age was 82.06, up 0.65 from a year before. Jiji Press