Participants in meetings to remember H-bomb test victim renew resolve to work for abolition of nuclear weapons

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Participants in meetings to remember H-bomb test victim renew resolve to work for abolition of nuclear weapons

In memory of Kuboyama Aikichi, a victim of a U.S. hydrogen bomb test explosion, rallies to renew the resolve to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons were held both in Yaizu City in Shizuoka Prefecture and in Tokyo on September 23.

Kuboyama was on board the Fifth Lucky Dragon when it was showered with radioactive fallout from a U.S. H-bomb test explosion at Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954. Kuboyama died due to radiation on September 23 the same year, leaving as his death wish that he should be the last victim of A- and H- Bombs.

In Yaizu City where Kuboyama was buried, 210 people took part in a march organized by the Shizuoka Prefectural Organizing Committee for March 1 Events. In front of his tomb, a representative of the Shizuoka Liaison Council of Young People's Associations said that they will make the March 1 Bikini incident known to more young people using the rose Aikichi and his wife grew.

Yaizu Mayor Tomoto Takao sent a message to the meeting held in the city hall on the same day.

In Tokyo, some 100 people gathered to offer flowers at the monument for Kuboyama in front of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru (Fifth Lucky Dragon) Exhibition Hall that marks the 30th anniversary of its foundation this year.

Niihara Shoji, international issues researcher, gave a lecture entitled, "The history of U.S. nuclear strategy and the Fifth Lucky Dragon." He said the Japanese movement against A- and H-bombs that spread throughout the country in the wake of the tragedy of the Fifth Lucky Dragon now exerts its influence on world politics.

Yamamoto Hidenori, head of the Tokyo plaintiffs' group in a collective lawsuit demanding official recognition of their diseases as A-bomb related, said, "The Fifth Lucky Dragon spurred Hibakusha in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to speaking out about their own experiences."
- Akahata, September 24, 2006