G7 Leaders’ Inscribe Thoughts in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum Guestbooks

The Yomiuri Shimbun

7:00 JST, May 21, 2023

HIROSHIMA — Guestbook entries penned Friday by Group of Seven leaders visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum were released Saturday by the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

“As chair of the G7, I am gathering here together with the leaders of G7 countries on this historic occasion of the G7 Summit to realize a world without nuclear weapons,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida wrote.

U.S. President Joe Biden — the second sitting U.S. president to visit the museum following Barack Obama in 2016 — wrote, “May the stories of this Museum remind us all of our obligations to build a future of peace. Together — let us continue to make progress toward the day when we can finally and forever rid the world of nuclear weapons. Keep the faith!”

French President Emmanuel Macron, writing in French, said the victims of Hiroshima must be remembered compassionately and that the world must act in favor of peace.

Initially writing in English, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote, “Canada pays solemn tribute to the many lives lost, the unspeakable grief of the Hibakusha, and the immense suffering of the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” then switched to French to write that victims’ stories would remain forever etched in our collective consciousness.

Writing in his native tongue, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the museum reminds the world of inconceivable suffering, adding that he and the other leaders had gathered to pledge to protect peace and freedom, and that nuclear war must never occur again.

For her entry, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote in Italian that the occasion was a time to pause, pray and remember that darkness did not prevail, adding that we should together build a future of hope, while remembering the past.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wrote: “Shakespeare tells us to ‘give sorrow words.’ Yet language fails in the light of the bomb’s flash. No words can describe the horror and suffering of the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But what we can say, with all our hearts, and all our souls, is no more.”