March 1 Bikini Day Rally held

About 2,000 people renewed their resolve to further develop the movement for a world free of nuclear weapons at the annual Bikini Day Assembly held in Yaizu City (Shizuoka Pref.) on March 1 to mark the 48th anniversary of the tragedy caused by a U.S. hydrogen test explosion at Bikini Atoll of the Marshall Islands.

The Organizing Committee of the World Conference against A and H Bombs and the Organizing Committee of the 2002 March 1 Shizuoka Pref. Committee sponsored the assembly.

Addressing on behalf of the host city, Yaizu, Mayor Tomoto Takao severely criticized the recent joint U.S.-British subcritical nuclear test, saying, "It tramples down the earnest call for the abolition of nuclear weapons, and makes me indignant."

The prefectural governors and mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki sent messages to the peace rally.

Kawai Tomoyasu, Organizing Committee for the World Conference representative, made the keynote speech, followed by reports by two former fishermen of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru (5th Lucky Dragon), a Yaizu-based tuna fishing boat which was showered with radioactive fallout at Bikini Atoll 48 years ago.

Oishi Matashichi, one of 23 crew members on the ship, now visiting the Marshall Islands, gave a message to the assembly in Yaizu City.

Representatives of the Japan Confederation of A and H Bombs Sufferers Organizations (Hidankyo), the Japan Seinendan (youth groups) Council, the Japan Council against A and H Bombs, and many other organizations took the rostrum to call for increasing their activities to immediately ban nuclear weapons.

International representatives who spoke at the assembly included Joseph Gerson from the American Friends Service Committee and Peter Anjain from the Marshall Islands. "Unless nuclear weapons are eliminated, there is no future for human beings," said Anjain. (end)