Speaker of Azerbaijan parliament visits Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
May 11, 2015
by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Staff Writer
Ogtay Asadov, 60, the speaker of the Azerbaijan parliament, visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on April 25. He toured the Peace Memorial Museum to deepen his understanding of the effects of the atomic bombing, which took place 70 years ago.
During his tour of the museum, Mr. Asadov paused in front of a charred lunchbox and a model of the city in ruins after the A-bomb attack. His eyes dropped ruefully as Kenji Shiga, the director of the museum, explained how many of the students who were mobilized to help with work to demolish buildings to create fire lanes were killed by the bomb.
Mr. Asadov also met Tomiko Matsumoto, 83, a resident of Saeki Ward who experienced the atomic bombing at a location about 1.4 kilometers from the hypocenter. She told him that she lost her mother and brother in the attack and suffered burns on her back and her legs. Mr. Asadov wrote in the museum guest book in Azerbaijani: “I call on all people of the world to unite so that the tragedy that occurred in Hiroshima will never be repeated.”
Mr. Asadov arrived in Japan on April 19 at the invitation of the Upper House of the Japanese Diet. Before visiting the Peace Memorial Museum, he offered flowers at the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims.
(Originally published on April 26, 2015)
Ogtay Asadov, 60, the speaker of the Azerbaijan parliament, visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on April 25. He toured the Peace Memorial Museum to deepen his understanding of the effects of the atomic bombing, which took place 70 years ago.
During his tour of the museum, Mr. Asadov paused in front of a charred lunchbox and a model of the city in ruins after the A-bomb attack. His eyes dropped ruefully as Kenji Shiga, the director of the museum, explained how many of the students who were mobilized to help with work to demolish buildings to create fire lanes were killed by the bomb.
Mr. Asadov also met Tomiko Matsumoto, 83, a resident of Saeki Ward who experienced the atomic bombing at a location about 1.4 kilometers from the hypocenter. She told him that she lost her mother and brother in the attack and suffered burns on her back and her legs. Mr. Asadov wrote in the museum guest book in Azerbaijani: “I call on all people of the world to unite so that the tragedy that occurred in Hiroshima will never be repeated.”
Mr. Asadov arrived in Japan on April 19 at the invitation of the Upper House of the Japanese Diet. Before visiting the Peace Memorial Museum, he offered flowers at the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims.
(Originally published on April 26, 2015)
