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Disarmament Diplomacy
Issue No. 49, August 2000
55th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic
Bombing
Early August saw the 55th anniversary of the US atomic
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At least 30,000 people attended
a ceremony in Hiroshima on August 6. They heard the city's Mayor,
Tadatoshi Akiba, deliver the city's annual Peace Declaration: "It
has been precisely 55 years since one single atomic bomb created a
hell on earth. Unfortunately, our most fervent hope, to see nuclear
weapons abolished by the end of this [20th] century, has
not been realized. … We will create a 21st
century in which Hiroshima's very existence formulates the
substance of peace." Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori expressed his
deepest sympathy for "the people who to this day continue to suffer
from the after effects of their exposure." In Nagasaki on August 9,
Mayor Itcho Ito cautioned: "The people of the Earth must not forget
that there are approximately 30,000 nuclear weapons still in
existence…"
In an interview with Japanese NHK television in Hiroshima on
August 6, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark observed: "The
individual world citizen has to play a part [in disarmament
efforts]. The individual world citizen could be writing to their
Prime Minister, their member of parliament, making it clear that
they want their Government to be taking a progressive role
internationally. The international citizen can join the annual
commemoration of what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The
individual citizen has power and…should use it."
Reports: Hiroshima plea for 21st
century, BBC News Online, August 6; Japan's Hiroshima
remembers nuclear inferno, Reuters, August 6; Japan marks
atomic bombing, Associated Press, August 6; Excerpts from
remarks on NHK Television by Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New
Zealand, August 6, provided by the Disarmament and Security
Centre, New Zealand, August 7; Nagasaki marks atomic
bombing, Associated Press, August 9.
© 2000 The Acronym Institute.
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