Hiroshima marks 70th A-bomb anniversary

Hiroshima marked the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city on Thursday, with Mayor Kazumi Matsui urging world leaders to renew their resolve to abolish nuclear weapons and pursue peace as embodied in Japan’s war-renouncing Constitution.

At a memorial ceremony in the city, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe joined Matsui in highlighting the role Japan should fulfill as the only country to have suffered nuclear attacks, but did not touch on the ongoing defense policy shift that has drawn criticism from atomic bomb survivors as eroding Japan’s pacifism.

The event was attended by representatives from a record 100 nations, including the United States, which in an unprecedented move sent a high-level official from Washington to attend the annual ceremony.

In the Peace Declaration read at the ceremony, Matsui did not directly mention the controversial security bills that would allow Japan for the first time in its postwar history to exercise the right to collective self-defense, or defend allies under armed attack even when Japan itself is not attacked.

Instead, the mayor encouraged world leaders to demonstrate their “love of humanity” and meet “tirelessly to talk,” saying that doing so is the first step toward nuclear weapons abolition.

“The next step is to create, through the trust thus won, broadly versatile security systems that do not depend on military might,” he said.

Matsui also called on the world to promote “the path to true peace revealed by the pacifism of the Japanese Constitution,” whose Article 9 forever renounces war and the use of force as a means of settling international disputes.

Abe’s Cabinet reinterpreted the provision last year to bring an end to the country’s ban on the right of collective self-defense and submitted the security bills to the Diet this year to put the move into effect, citing “increasing severity” in the security environment surrounding Japan.

But the bills have met a barrage of criticism from many constitutional scholars, who argue that the legislation would violate the war-renouncing Constitution, as well as from atomic bomb survivors who fear that if enacted, it could entangle Japan in war.

Given that Japan will host next year’s summit of the Group of Seven industrialized nations, Matsui reiterated his hope that U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders will visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki to hear firsthand accounts of atomic bomb survivors.

It is unclear whether by sending to the memorial ceremony Rose Gottemoeller, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, Washington is trying to lay the groundwork for Obama’s visit.

U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said the move underscores Washington’s eagerness to work with Japan to advance Obama’s goal of realizing a world without nuclear weapons, which he advocated in his Prague speech in 2009.

As for Japan’s role in the pursuit,Abe said in his speech that the government will take “realistic and practical” steps toward a nuclear-weapons-free world and seek to make the inhumane nature of nuclear weapons widely known.

Abe also said he will introduce a new draft resolution calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons to a new session of the U.N. General Assembly to be convened in the autumn, which may include a call on world leaders to visit the atomic-bombed cities.

The Japanese government has submitted a draft nuclear disarmament resolution to the assembly for the past 21 years, all of which have been adopted.

The prime minister also vowed to continue to offer medical and other forms of support to atomic bomb survivors, whose average age has exceeded 80.

At 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, an atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima, killing outright or by the end of that year an estimated 140,000 people. A second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, and Japan surrendered six days later, bringing an end to World War II.

The number of hibakusha in and outside Japan — atomic bomb survivors with documents certifying that they experienced the terrible bombing 70 years ago — stood at 183,519 in March, nearly half of its peak of 372,264 in 1980, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

Although the hibakusha have yearned for a world without nuclear weapons, the ideal faces an uphill battle, with more than 15,000 nuclear weapons estimated to exist in the world at present, most of them in U.S. and Russian arsenals.

Amid growing frustration over the stagnant nuclear disarmament efforts and increased focus on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, countries that do not have nuclear weapons have recently stepped up calls to outlaw them.

In the declaration, Matsui urged the Japanese government to “guide all states” toward discussions on such a legal framework, although Tokyo has been cautious about supporting the move as the country has relied on the U.S. nuclear deterrence for protection.

Hailing survivors as “unparalleled champions of peace,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement read out during the ceremony that the United Nations will stand with the survivors, determined to realize their vision of a nuclear-weapon-free world.

“I echo your rallying cry: No More Hiroshimas. No More Nagasakis,” he said.   
   by Miya Tanaka
   Kyodo

 6/8/15
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