Japanese-Born British Author Ishiguro Honored by Nagasaki

July 4, 2018

London- Japanese-born British author Kazuo Ishiguro, 63, the winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature, received a certificate as an honorary citizen of Nagasaki from Tomihisa Taue, mayor of the southwestern Japan city, on Tuesday in London.

At the same time, Ishiguro, who was born in the city of Nagasaki, was given an honorary citizen certificate from Hodo Nakamura, governor of Nagasaki Prefecture.

The city and the prefecture each picked Ishiguro as an honorary citizen in March this year.

Receiving a memorial medal and a golden cup, as well as the certificates, Ishiguro said, "I thank you for all from the bottom of my heart."

"Nagasaki and its citizens have kept alive throughout the years with the memories of what happened in August 1945...with a deep longing that such events never occur again anywhere on this planet," he said.

The city of Nagasaki was devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb on Aug. 9, 1945, in the closing days of World War II.

Noting that the globe is now "an uncertain place," Ishiguro said, "Nagasaki must continue to have a special responsibility to warn the world of the great danger" that continues to "threaten us all." Jiji Press