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Hiroshima A-bomb survivors and others protest restart of Kyushu nuclear reactor; sit-in held in front of Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims

by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Staff Writer

About 50 atomic bomb survivors and other citizens held a sit-in in front of the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park on October 15 to protest the restart earlier that day of the No. 2 reactor at the Sendai nuclear power plant operated by Kyushu Electric Power Company. A similar protest was held following the restart of the plant’s No. 1 reactor on August 11.

Organized by the Hiroshima Prefecture Congress against A- and H-bombs and the Hiroshima Peace Action Center, the sit-in began at noon and lasted for 30 minutes. Participants held a banner and placards stating their opposition to the restart of the reactor, and a statement calling for the decommissioning of all nuclear reactors in Japan was read out. It said that the full story of the nuclear accident in Fukushima had not been told and that it was unclear when clean-up of the plant would be completed.

Toshiyuki Mimaki, 73, vice chair of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, chaired by Sunao Tsuboi, was one of the participants in the sit-in. “We must not allow our children and grandchildren to live in fear of harm from radiation,” he said. “We must speak out in order to prevent nearby nuclear power plants in Ehime and Shimane prefectures from being reactivated as well.”

(Originally published on October 16, 2015)

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