Japan Press Weekly

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Peace Declaration by Hiroshima Mayor Akiba

At the memorial on August 6 to mark the 63^rd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the world’s first nuclear attack, Hiroshima Mayor Akiba Tadatoshi read the Peace Declaration. The following is the translation of excerpts as reported by Akahata of August 7.

To achieve the will of the majority by 2020, Mayors for Peace, now with 2,368 city members worldwide, proposed in April of this year a Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol to supplement the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

This Protocol calls for an immediate halt to all efforts, including by nuclear-weapon states, to obtain or deploy nuclear weapons, with a legal ban on all acquisition or use to follow by 2015.

Thus, it draws a concrete road map to a nuclear-weapon-free world.

Now, with our destination and the map to that destination clear, all we need is the strong will and capacity to act to guard the future for our children.

I hereby call on the Japanese government to fiercely defend our Constitution, press all governments to adopt the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, and play a leading role in the effort to abolish nuclear weapons.

I further request greater generosity in designating A-bomb illnesses and in relief measures appropriate to the current situations of our aging Hibakusha, including those exposed in “black rain areas” and those living overseas.

? Akahata, August 7, 2008