Hiroshima, Nagasaki mayors ask Russian president to visit A-bombed cities
Sep. 16, 2016
On September 15, the Cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki sent a letter requesting that Russian President Vladimir Putin visit the A-bombed cities. The letter was brought to the Russian Embassy in Tokyo, and invites Mr. Putin to visit the cities in conjunction with a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe scheduled for December 15 in Nagato, Yamaguchi Prefecture.
The letter was signed by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue. It said that if the president of the nuclear superpower touches the true consequences of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and expresses his strong resolve for abolishing nuclear arms, this would be a large step toward realizing a world without nuclear weapons.
Mutsushi Tanimoto, the director general of the Citizens Affairs Bureau for the City of Hiroshima, and Akitoshi Nakamura, the director of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, visited the embassy in Tokyo. According to the City of Hiroshima, Russian Ambassador to Japan Evgeny Afanasiev said that he will forward the request to the Russian government.
The cities also submitted a letter signed by the mayors to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting that the Japanese government take a leadership role at the United Nations General Assembly, which is now in session, in urging that negotiations for a legal ban on nuclear weapons begin within 2017.
(Originally published on September 16, 2016)
The letter was signed by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue. It said that if the president of the nuclear superpower touches the true consequences of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and expresses his strong resolve for abolishing nuclear arms, this would be a large step toward realizing a world without nuclear weapons.
Mutsushi Tanimoto, the director general of the Citizens Affairs Bureau for the City of Hiroshima, and Akitoshi Nakamura, the director of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, visited the embassy in Tokyo. According to the City of Hiroshima, Russian Ambassador to Japan Evgeny Afanasiev said that he will forward the request to the Russian government.
The cities also submitted a letter signed by the mayors to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting that the Japanese government take a leadership role at the United Nations General Assembly, which is now in session, in urging that negotiations for a legal ban on nuclear weapons begin within 2017.
(Originally published on September 16, 2016)
