64 years after A-bomb, mayor says alternative is annihilation Nagasaki

Kyodo News
Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue, echoing a call by U.S. President Barack Obama, urged people around the globe on Sunday to choose a path toward a world free of nuclear weapons as the city commemorated the 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing.A moment of silence was observed at 11:02 a.m., the time on Aug. 9, 1945, when a U.S. bomber dropped the atomic bomb that killed an estimated 74,000 people by the end of that year.
Another 3,304 people were recognized this past year as fatal victims of the Nagasaki bombing, bringing the total of those who have died to 149,266, according to city officials.”We, as human beings, now have two paths before us,” Taue said in his Peace Declaration during the annual memorial ceremony at Nagasaki Peace Park. “While one can lead us to a world without nuclear weapons, the other will carry us toward annihilation.” 

Obama said in April that the United States will seek a world without nuclear weapons, creating a wave of optimism among people petitioning for the abolishment of nuclear arms around the world.”President Obama’s speech was a watershed event, in that the United States, a superpower possessing nuclear weapons, finally took a step toward the elimination of nuclear armaments,” Taue said, adding that people in Nagasaki are circulating petitions urging the U.S. leader to visit their city. 

As for Japan, Taue said the country must take a leading role in disseminating around the world the “ideals of peace and renunciation of war” as stipulated in the Constitution.Taue urged the central government to turn into law Japan’s stated three nonnuclear principles of not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear weapons on Japanese territory. He also said the government should work on creating a nuclear weapons-free zone in Northeast Asia, including North Korea. 

Taue touched on Pyongyang’s nuclear test in May, saying, “As long as the world continues to rely on nuclear deterrence and nuclear weapons continue to exist, the possibility always exists that dangerous nations like North Korea and terrorists will emerge.”He urged the international community to make North Korea destroy its nuclear arsenal and said the five major nuclear powers — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — must “fulfill their responsibility to reduce nuclear arms.” 

In support of Taue, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, president of the U.N. General Assembly and a Roman Catholic priest, spoke at the ceremony, saying, “The only certain way to assure that nuclear weapons will never be used again is to eliminate them outright.”Prime Minister Taro Aso pledged at the ceremony to stick to the three nonnuclear principles as he gave a speech similar to the one he delivered in Hiroshima three days earlier. 

Aso mentioned an agreement reached Thursday under which 306 plaintiffs will be granted certification as suffering from atomic bomb-related illnesses and get the accompanying benefits.The move came after the government lost 19 straight lawsuits filed across the country over the certification issue, putting an end to their six-year-long legal battle. 

Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, six days after Nagasaki was bombed.