{"id":5626,"date":"2015-08-06T12:44:02","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T11:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/?p=5626"},"modified":"2015-08-06T12:44:02","modified_gmt":"2015-08-06T11:44:02","slug":"japan-calls-for-nuclear-weapons-free-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/japan-calls-for-nuclear-weapons-free-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan calls for nuclear-weapons free world"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Japan\"<\/a>Japan marked the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Thursday, with Mayor Kazumi Matsui renewing calls for US President Barack Obama and other world leaders to step up efforts toward making a nuclear-weapons-free world.
\nTens of thousands of people stood for a minute of silence at 8:15 a.m. at a ceremony in Hiroshima\u2019s peace park near the epicenter of the 1945 attack, marking the moment of the blast. Then dozens of doves were released as a symbol of peace.
\nThe US bomb, \u201cLittle Boy,\u201d the first nuclear weapon used in war, killed 140,000 people. A second bomb, \u201cFat Man,\u201d dropped over Nagasaki three days later, killed another 70,000, prompting Japan\u2019s surrender in World War II.
\nThe US dropped the bombs to avoid what would have been a bloody ground assault on the Japanese mainland, following the fierce battle for Japan\u2019s southernmost Okinawan islands, which took 12,520 American lives and an estimated 200,000 Japanese, about half civilians.
\nMatsui called nuclear weapons \u201cthe absolute evil and ultimate inhumanity\u201d that must be abolished, and criticized nuclear powers for keeping them as threats to achieve their national interests. He said the world till bristles with more than 15,000 nuclear weapons.
\nHe renewed an invitation to world leaders to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki to see the scars themselves, during the G-7 summit in Japan next year.
\n\u201cPresident Obama and other policymakers, please come to the A-bombed cities, hear the hibakusha (surviving victims) with your own ears, and encounter the reality of the atomic bombings,\u201d he said. \u201cSurely, you will be impelled to start discussing a legal framework, including a nuclear weapons convention.\u201d
\nThe anniversary comes as Japan is divided over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe\u2019s push to pass unpopular legislation to expand the country\u2019s military role internationally, a year after his Cabinet\u2019s decision to loosen Japan\u2019s war-renouncing constitution by adopting a new interpretation of it.
\n\u201cWe must establish a broad national security framework that does not rely on use of force but is based on trust,\u201d Matsui said. He urged the Japanese government to stick with \u201cthe pacifism of the Japanese Constitution\u201d to lead the global effort of no proliferation.
\nAbe, also addressing the ceremony, said that as the sole country to face a nuclear attack, Japan had a duty to push for the elimination of nuclear weapons. He pledged to promote the cause through international conferences to be held in Hiroshima later this month.
\nWith the average age of survivors now exceeding 80 for the first time this year, passing on their stories is considered an urgent task. There were 5,359 hibakusha who died over the past year, bringing the total death toll from the Hiroshima bombing to 297,684.
\nUS Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and representatives from more than 100 countries, including Britain, France and Russia, attended the ceremony.
\n\u201cLittle Boy,\u201d dropped from the Enola Gay B-29 bomber, destroyed 90 percent of the city. A \u201cblack rain\u201d of radioactive particles followed the blinding blast and fireball, and has been linked to higher rates of cancer and other radiation-related diseases among the survivors.<\/p>\n

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