Meeting of Japanese member cities of Mayors for Peace opens in Hiroshima to review action plan to abolish nuclear weapons
Nov. 19, 2015
by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Staff Writer
On November 9, Mayors for Peace opened its fifth meeting of Japanese member cities at the International Conference Center Hiroshima in the city that was attacked by the atomic bomb 70 years ago. At the two-day meeting, the participants will discuss peace activities and review items on their action plan to abolish nuclear weapons by the year 2020. The last meeting was held in Hiroshima two years ago.
On the first day of the meeting, 113 representatives from 80 municipalities, including 31 mayors, took part. Kazumi Matsui, the president of the organization, delivered a speech in which he referred to a resolution for establishing a working group to discuss arms reduction measures, including legal provisions, at the First Committee of the U.N. General Assembly. Mr. Matsui called on the participants to share the thoughts and feelings of the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with their citizens to help advance the efforts being made to reduce nuclear arms.
Following Mr. Matsui’s speech, four groups from the city of Hiroshima presented their activities to promote peace. Students from Hiroshima Jogakuin High School talked about collecting signatures for their petition calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons and creating a website which conveys the accounts and experiences of the A-bomb survivors. Junior writers from the Chugoku Shimbun, teen reporters who gather information and write articles on peace-related issues for the newspaper, also introduced their activities.
After listening to the A-bomb account of Yoshiko Kajimoto, 84, a resident of Nishi Ward, the participants laid flowers at the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims and toured the Peace Memorial Museum.
As of November 1, 2015, Mayors for Peace is comprised of a total of 6,893 cities from 161 countries and regions, including 1,597 cities, wards, towns, and villages in Japan. On November 10, the meeting will discuss new and improved ideas for the action plan being pursued domestically in the fiscal years from 2013 to 2017.
(Originally published on November 10, 2015)
On November 9, Mayors for Peace opened its fifth meeting of Japanese member cities at the International Conference Center Hiroshima in the city that was attacked by the atomic bomb 70 years ago. At the two-day meeting, the participants will discuss peace activities and review items on their action plan to abolish nuclear weapons by the year 2020. The last meeting was held in Hiroshima two years ago.
On the first day of the meeting, 113 representatives from 80 municipalities, including 31 mayors, took part. Kazumi Matsui, the president of the organization, delivered a speech in which he referred to a resolution for establishing a working group to discuss arms reduction measures, including legal provisions, at the First Committee of the U.N. General Assembly. Mr. Matsui called on the participants to share the thoughts and feelings of the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with their citizens to help advance the efforts being made to reduce nuclear arms.
Following Mr. Matsui’s speech, four groups from the city of Hiroshima presented their activities to promote peace. Students from Hiroshima Jogakuin High School talked about collecting signatures for their petition calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons and creating a website which conveys the accounts and experiences of the A-bomb survivors. Junior writers from the Chugoku Shimbun, teen reporters who gather information and write articles on peace-related issues for the newspaper, also introduced their activities.
After listening to the A-bomb account of Yoshiko Kajimoto, 84, a resident of Nishi Ward, the participants laid flowers at the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims and toured the Peace Memorial Museum.
As of November 1, 2015, Mayors for Peace is comprised of a total of 6,893 cities from 161 countries and regions, including 1,597 cities, wards, towns, and villages in Japan. On November 10, the meeting will discuss new and improved ideas for the action plan being pursued domestically in the fiscal years from 2013 to 2017.
(Originally published on November 10, 2015)
