2ND LD: Hiroshima mayor says U.S. worships nuke arms as 'God'

Japan Policy & Politics, August 11, 2003

HIROSHIMA, Aug. 6 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING MORE INFO)

Hiroshima marked the 58th anniversary Wednesday of its annihilation by a U.S. atomic bomb during World War II, with its mayor saying the United States seems to ''worship nuclear weapons as God,'' while Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reiterated Japan's commitment to the global elimination of nuclear arms.

''The world without nuclear weapons and beyond war that our hibakusha (atomic bombing survivors) have sought for so long appears to be slipping deeper beyond a thick cover of dark clouds that they fear at any minute could become mushroom clouds spilling black rain,'' Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said in the annual Peace Declaration.

The anniversary of the Aug. 6, 1945 atomic bombing comes amid intensified global nuclear threats over the past year. The U.S. reversed its nuclear policy by moving to resume research into small nuclear weapons and North Korea expressed its willingness to develop nuclear arms -- recent developments U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan also pointed out in a written message.

''The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the central international agreement guiding the elimination of nuclear weapons, is on the verge of collapse,'' Akiba said, speaking before an estimated 40,000 people at the annual ceremony starting at 8 a.m. at the Peace Memorial Park in the city of Hiroshima.

''The chief cause is U.S. nuclear policy that, by openly declaring the possibility of a preemptive nuclear first strike and calling for resumed research into mini-nukes and other so-called 'useable nuclear weapons,' appears to worship nuclear weapons as God,'' said Akiba, a former House of Representatives member from the opposition Social Democratic Party.

Akiba called on U.S. President George W. Bush, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and leaders of all the nuclear powers to visit Hiroshima and learn about the reality of nuclear war.

''We must somehow convey to them that nuclear weapons are utterly evil, inhumane and illegal under international law,'' the mayor said under a scorching sun.

Koizumi, who attended the 45-minute ceremony for the third time, vowed ''maximum efforts toward the abolition of nuclear weapons'' by pressing forward with nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament.

He pledged to step up efforts to urge other nations to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Annan, in the message to the city, also urged the international community to intensify efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons, saying ''worrisome trends'' have emerged in recent years.

Noting that tens of thousands of such weapons remain in arsenals around the world, Annan said nonnuclear states are moving to acquire nuclear weapons, nuclear states are modernizing existing arsenals and creating new types, and major concerns have arisen over terrorists obtaining nuclear weapons or radiological bombs.

At 8:15 a.m., the time the atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima 58 years ago, tens of thousands of survivors, mostly in their 70s, along with attendees from around the world, closed their eyes and held a minute of silence.

Afterward, 1,500 white doves were released into the sky.

This year, the names of 5,050 more people recognized as atomic-bomb victims by the city government since Aug. 6 last year were added to a memorial arch, bringing the total to 231,920.

The atomic blast and its aftereffects had killed an estimated 140,000 people by the end of 1945.

Akiba said the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq highlighted the contradiction of the claim that peace could be achieved through war, noting it was carried out with ''disregard for the multitudes around the world demanding a peaceful solution.''

The mayor urged that rule by might be replaced by rule of law in the international community, quoting the words of U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who said, ''Darkness can never be dispelled by darkness, only by light.''

As for the Japanese government, Akiba said, ''It must adopt as national precepts three new nonnuclear principles -- allowing no production, possession or use of nuclear weapons in anywhere in the world -- and work conscientiously toward an Asian nuclear-free zone.''

Koizumi reiterated his pledge to maintain Japan's war-renouncing Constitution and the country's three avowed nonnuclear principles -- not producing, not possessing and not allowing nuclear weapons on its soil -- and also vowed to work ''wholeheartedly'' to enhance assistance for survivors of the atomic bombings.

Among those paying tribute to the victims were a number of local schoolchildren.

''To rid the world of bullying, violence, fighting and war, all we need is empathy for others,'' 11-year-old Hiroyuki Fujii said when he read out his commitment to peace at the ceremony.

Other participants included Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Chikara Sakaguchi, whose ministry is in charge of policies for atomic bombing survivors, Russian Ambassador to Japan Alexander Panov and Naoto Kan, leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan.