Associated
Press
Aug. 6, 2003 07:05 AM
Tadatoshi Akiba said Washington's apparent worship of "nuclear weapons as
God" was threatening world peace.
"The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the central international agreement
guiding the elimination of nuclear weapons, is on the verge of collapse,"
Akiba said during the annual ceremony at the Peace Memorial Park. "As the
U.S.-British-led war on Iraq made clear, the assertion that war is peace is
being trumpeted as truth."
At 8:15 a.m., a bell tolled, marking the minute on Aug. 6, 1945 when the U.S.
atomic bomb's explosion devastated this city, 429 miles southwest of Tokyo. For
60 seconds, tens of thousands of survivors, residents, activists and officials from
around the world bowed in silence to commemorate the 160,000 people who were
killed or injured in the blast.
Reminding the crowd of the "blazing hell fire that swept over this very
spot 58 years ago," Akiba called all nuclear weapons "utterly evil, inhumane
and illegal under international law."
This year's ceremony comes less than a week after North Korea agreed to U.S.
demands for six-nation talks to resolve the standoff over the isolated
communist regime's nuclear programs. China, Russia, Japan and South Korea were
expected to take part, though no timeline for the meetings has been decided.
Akiba didn't directly criticize Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions. But he urged
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, President Bush and the heads of other
nuclear-armed countries to visit Hiroshima and confront the nuclear attack's
aftermath.
The Bush administration wants Congress to approve $68 million for research into
advanced nuclear weapons technology, including research on a ground-penetrating
nuclear warhead, known as a bunker-buster, and smaller, so-called mini-nukes,
of less than 5 kilotons.
The United States has had a self-imposed ban on nuclear testing since 1992.
During Wednesday's ceremony, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reaffirmed
Japan's policy banning the production, possession and transport of nuclear
weapons within its borders.
"Our country's stance on this will not change," Koizumi said, adding
that Tokyo would push for countries to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty, which would impose a moratorium on nuclear explosion tests.
Afterward, thousands of people lined up in the sweltering heat to burn incense,
pray and shoot photographs at the arch-shaped stone memorial, which contains
the names of hundreds of thousands of people who were in the city on the day of
the bombing.
Hiroshima city added to the cenotaph 5,050 names of those who have died from
cancer and other long-term ailments over the past year, raising the toll to
231,920, city official Yukiko Ota said.
Ceremonies will be held Saturday on the anniversary of the atomic bombing of
Nagasaki, on the southernmost main island of Kyushu. About 70,000 people were
killed by an atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki from a U.S. aircraft, three days
after the one that leveled Hiroshima.
Six days later, on Aug. 15, 1945, Japan's surrender ended World War II.