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Nagasaki urges gov't to heed security policy worries on A-bomb day

NAGASAKI (Kyodo) -- Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue called on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government to heed mounting public concern over its security policy on Saturday, the 69th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the southwestern Japan city.

At an annual ceremony to mourn the victims of the attack, Taue pledged in his Peace Declaration the city's continued push for the elimination of nuclear weapons, while touching on the government's controversial decision last month to enable Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense, or coming to the defense of allies even when Japan is not under attack.

"The oath prescribed in the Japanese Constitution that Japan shall 'renounce war' is the founding principle for postwar Japan and Nagasaki, a country and a city which suffered the atomic bomb."

"However, the rushed debate over collective self-defense has given rise to the concern that this principle is wavering. I urgently request that the Japanese government take serious heed of these distressed voices," Taue said as Abe sat nearby.

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui did not directly refer to the issue in his speech at the western Japan city's annual ceremony three days earlier, eliciting criticism from opponents of the Cabinet decision.

Taue also said Japan should consider the creation of a Northeast Asia nuclear-weapon-free zone covering Japan, South Korean and North Korea.

He called on nuclear weapons states and countries under a nuclear umbrella to create a forum for discussion with countries seeking to legally ban nuclear arms, and for the Japanese government, which "best understands the inhumanity of nuclear weapons," to take the initiative in such efforts.

The mayor expressed his support for areas affected by the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster. "Nagasaki continues to provide various forms of support to Fukushima in the hope that the region will achieve full recovery as soon as possible," he said.

Attendees at the ceremony bowed their heads in silent prayer at 11:02 a.m., the exact time the second-ever atomic bomb "Fat Man" detonated at an altitude of about 500 meters on Aug. 9, 1945, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima.

Japan surrendered to Allied Forces six days later, ending World War II. The atomic bomb attack killed an estimated 74,000 in Nagasaki by the end of 1945.

Abe made a speech reiterating his pledge three days earlier in Hiroshima to "spare no efforts in working toward the total abolition of nuclear weapons and the realization of eternal world peace" ahead of the 70th anniversary of the bombings and a review conference next year of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The speech bore signs of minor tweaks from the one Abe delivered in Nagasaki last year, after the premier faced criticism for delivering a speech in Hiroshima that had identical wording from the previous year.

This year's ceremony was attended by representatives from a record 50 countries and the European Union.

The five nuclear weapons states recognized by the NPT -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- sent delegates, as did Israel, which is suspected of having nuclear arms. China did not send an envoy to the Hiroshima ceremony.

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy followed up her attendance at the Hiroshima ceremony with her first Nagasaki ceremony since assuming the post last November.

The number of "hibakusha" radiation-affected survivors of the atomic bombings living in Japan and abroad stood at 192,719 as of late March, falling below 200,000 for the first time. Their average age was 79.44.

毎日新聞より

  「田上市長は「集団的自衛権の議論を機に、『平和国家』としての安全保障のあり方についてさまざまな意見が交わされている」とし、日本国憲法９条がうたう平和主義に触れ「『戦争をしない』という誓いは被爆国・日本の原点であり、被爆地・長崎の原点でもある」と述べた。

   「被爆者たちが自らの体験を伝え続けた平和の原点が揺らいでいるのではないかという不安と懸念が、急ぐ議論のなかで生まれている」と、十分な議論を経ないままの憲法解釈変更への危機感をにじませ、国民の声に耳を傾けるよう政府に求めた。」

「集団的自衛権の行使容認については、被爆者代表として「平和への誓い」を読んだ城臺（じょうだい）美弥子さん（７５）も「日本国憲法を踏みにじる暴挙です」と厳しく批判した。」

「安倍首相は「『核兵器のない世界』を実現するための取り組みを、さらに前に進める」と述べたが、２００７年の第１次政権時に触れた「憲法の規定を順守」とする発言はなかった。」

【小畑英介】