Commencing 50th annual nationwide peace marches for a nuclear-free world

   Calling for a peaceful and just world without nuclear weapons, the 2007 nationwide peace marches started in Tokyo and Rebun Island, Japan’s northernmost island, on May 6. This annual event marks its 50th anniversary this year.

   With eleven main courses and smaller courses throughout the country, the marches are heading for the atom-bombed cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

   In Tokyo, about 800 participants, including A-bomb survivors (Hibakusha), took part in the march (Tokyo-Hiroshima route). In the pouring rain, many participants held umbrellas and slogans reading “Abolish nuclear weapons!” Young participants played music of peace.

   At the departure ceremony, National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) Vice-President Shibata Masako spoke on behalf of the organizing committee.

   She called on marchers to further increase public awareness of the need to swiftly abolish nuclear weapons, safeguard the Three Non-Nuclear Principles (not to possess, manufacture, or allow nuclear weapons to be brought in), and defend the war-renouncing Article 9.

   Takeda Akihiko, a 66-year-old participant who will walk all the way to Hiroshima, spoke about his father who had been killed in the war when Takeda was three years old, and expressed his determination to appeal to the public for defending Article 9 as well as establishing a world without nuclear weapons.

- Akahata, May 8, 2007