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Nagasaki mayor calls on youth to join anti nuclear movement

Nagasaki mayor slams Abe’s nuclear policy on atom bomb anniversary http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-09/nagasaki-mayor-slams-abe-nuclear-policy/4877418 10 Aug 13, 

VIDEO: Nagasaki mayor slams Abe’s nuclear policy on atom bomb anniversary (ABC News)

As tens of thousands of people gathered in Nagasaki for the anniversary, mayor Tomihisa Taue used the occasion to call for stronger anti-nuclear leadership from Tokyo.

Mr Taue says the recent failure to sign a statement rejecting the use of nuclear weapons under any circumstances was a betrayal. “If we cannot accept the wording that usage of nuclear weapon will never be permitted, it means the Japanese government is showing that nuclear weapons can be used depending on the circumstance,” he said.

Mr Taue called on Japan’s younger generation to hear the voices of the World War II bomb survivors and remember its devastating effects. The memorial was held at Nagasaki’s Peace Park, close to the spot where the US military dropped its bomb on August 9, 1945.

Seventy-four thousand of the city’s population of 240,000 were killed immediately or were dead within a year.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also spoke at the event, reminding the audience that the Japanese are the only people to have experienced a nuclear attack. “We have the responsibility to bring about a world without nuclear weapons and it is our duty to continue to remind the world of the inhumanity (of nuclear weapons),” Mr Abe said.

August 10, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general