53rd Bikini Day commemorated

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53rd Bikini Day commemorated

On March 1, marking the 53rd anniversary of the Bikini tragedy in which a Japanese fishing boat was showered with radioactive fallout of U.S. hydrogen bomb test explosion on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, peace marches and rallies were held in Yaizu City in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Pledging to fight for the abolition of nuclear weapons, participants marched towards and offered flowers at the tomb of Kuboyama Aikichi, who had been on board Daigo Fukuryu Maru and died of diseases caused by the radioactive fallout.

The events were co-sponsored by the Organizing Committee of the World Conference against A and H Bombs and the Bikini Day Shizuoka Prefectural Organizing Committee.

Sawada Shoji, co-chair of the Organizing Committee of the World Conference against A and H Bombs, in his speech pointed out that the Japanese movement against A and H Bombs that began in the wake of the Bikini tragedy has helped to create the worldwide current demanding the total abolition of nuclear weapons and that the U.S. Bush administration, which the Japanese government is supporting, is isolated from the rest of the world. He called on participants to further increase public opposition to nuclear weapons.

Kenzaki Yoshio, 82-year-old former chief fisherman of Daigo Fukuryu Maru, stressed the need to show the existence of a peace-loving nation.

Arthur Binard, a poet who had published an illustrated book on Daigo Fukuryu Maru, stressed the importance of the movement calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Yaizu City Mayor Tomoto Takao extended his greetings to the rally.

At a ceremony held in front of Kuboyama's tomb in which about 1,500 people took part, Seko Yukiko, Japanese Communist Party Central Committee member, said there is no future for forces pursuing the "Japan-U.S. alliance-first" policy in defiance of the world trend pushing for peace. She expressed her determination to make her utmost efforts to defend Article 9.
- Akahata, March 2, 2007