Global Security Newswire

Officials from nuclear powers France, the United Kingdom and the United States today took part for the first time in a Japanese ceremony marking the U.S. atomic bomb attack on the city of Hiroshima, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Aug. 4).

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and envoys from 74 countries attended the event, where children's choirs sang and bells tolled in observance of the 65th anniversary of the bombing at the end of World War II. Participants joined in a moment of silence at 8:15 a.m., the minute the bomb was released.

"We need to communicate to every corner of the globe the intense yearning of the survivors for the abolition of nuclear weapons," Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba told the event's 55,000 attendees.

Akiba urged Japan to play a lead part in denuclearization efforts aimed at "turning a new page in human history."

"I offer my prayers to those who died -- we will not make you be patient much longer," he said.

Akiba has encouraged U.S. President Barack Obama to visit the city (Eric Talmadge, Associated Press/Time, Aug. 5).

"Right now, there are no plans" for Obama to visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki, the other site of a U.S. atomic bombing, a White House official told Kyodo News yesterday. Still, the official noted the U.S. president's remark last year that he "hopes someday to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki" (Kyodo News/Breitbart.com, Aug. 5).

The ceremony presented an opportunity for the world to demonstrate its commitment to abolishing nuclear weapons, U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos said.

"For the sake of future generations, we must continue to work together to realize a world without nuclear weapons," Roos said in released remarks.

Today's ceremony will send a message that nuclear weapons must be eliminated, the U.N. chief added.

"Life is short, but memory is long," Ban said. "For many of you, that day endures ... as vivid as the white light that seared the sky, as dark as the black rains that followed" (Talmadge, AP).

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan defended the importance of U.S. extended nuclear deterrence in ensuring his nation's security, Reuters reported (see GSN, July 27).

"Nuclear deterrence continues to be necessary for our nation at a time when there are unclear and uncertain factors," Kan said following the memorial event, according to Kyodo News.

The prime minister also called for continued adherence to Japan's "non-nuclear principles" prohibiting the government from producing or stockpiling such weapons or allowing them to be brought into the country. A Japanese panel of experts is reportedly set to recommend the government loosen the third of the self-imposed restrictions (Yoko Kubota, Reuters, Aug. 6).