Hiroshima mayor asks U.S. to cancel B-52 flights

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Hiroshima mayor asks U.S. to cancel B-52 flights

Hiroshima Mayor Akiba Tadatoshi on April 25 wrote to U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer and U.S. Marine Corps Iwakuni Air Station Commander Michael A. O’Halloran requesting that the planned B-52 bomber flights during an airshow at the base be cancelled.

The B-52 is a nuclear-capable strategic bomber.

Citing the crash in Spain of a B-52 carrying nuclear bombs in the 1960s and an explosion of a B-52 in Okinawa in 1969, Akiba pointed to the danger that the aircraft poses.

Pointing out that Japan and the United States reached an agreement in 1972 to allow B-52s to fly in Japanese airspace only in emergencies such as during a typhoon, the Hiroshima mayor said that the planned flight to Iwakuni has nothing to do with an emergency.

“Many Hiroshima citizens, in particular Hibakusha (atomic-bomb survivors) cannot allow B-52s, that can carry nuclear weapons, to be flown near Hiroshima, the first city to come under nuclear attack and a city continuing to call for the elimination of nuclear weapons and for lasting world peace.”

The Hiroshima mayor also asked Foreign Minister Komura Masahiko to request the United States to cancel the planned B-52 flights.

- Akahata, April 28, 2008