Politics & Government

Hiroshima Mayor Calls for Cooperation in Fight against N-Weapons

FRANCK ROBICHON/Pool via REUTERS
File photo: Mayor of Hiroshima Kazumi Matsui (back) speaks to G7 leaders in with the Atomic Bomb Dome in the background in the Peace Memorial Park as part of the G7 Hiroshima Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, 19 May 2023.

Jiji Press

11:18 JST, October 24, 2024

London (Jiji Press)—Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui addressed Seanad Eireann, the upper chamber of Ireland’s parliament, on Wednesday, seeking cooperation over the fight against nuclear weapons and over calls for peace.

Touching on the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, also known as Nihon Hidankyo, a group of hibakusha atomic bomb survivors, being named as this year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Matsui said, “This must be the time to unite the voices of peace-loving people around the world and strengthen their solidarity for peace.”

The western Japan city of Hiroshima was devastated by an atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Aug. 6, 1945.

In his speech, delivered in English, Matsui said that the nuclear threat has been rising amid heightened tensions among major powers.

“The world could be heading back into a nuclear arms race,” he warned, stressing the need for cross-border efforts on nuclear abolition by passing down the stories of the atrocities of the atomic bombing.

Matsui mentioned a hibakusha who started taking English lessons at the age of 83 so that she could tell her own story of being exposed to the atomic bomb at just eight years old.

He quoted her speech that if a nuclear bomb were used now, “humankind would be wiped out,” and that what she could do as an atomic bomb survivor is to “send out warning bells to the global community.”

Nihon Hidankyo was picked to be the recipient of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize “in recognition of such tireless work and action on the part of the hibakusha,” Matsui said.

Matsui serves as head of Mayors for Peace, comprised of mayors from over 8,400 cities in 166 countries and regions.

He was invited by the Irish parliament to address Seanad Eireann in Dublin, ahead of a two-day Mayors for Peace meeting to be held in Manchester, Britain, from Monday.

Ireland has been promoting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.