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City of Hiroshima awards Sunao Tsuboi title of Honorary Citizen for efforts to hand down A-bomb experience

by Keiichi Nagayama, Staff Writer

The City of Hiroshima awarded the title of Honorary Citizen to Sunao Tsuboi on April 5 to acknowledge his efforts in helping strengthen momentum for nuclear abolition around the world, improving support for A-bomb survivors, and handing down the A-bomb experience. The 92-year-old A-bomb survivor is a resident of Nishi Ward, Hiroshima and serves as a co-chairperson of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) and the chair of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organizations.

During the award ceremony held at Hiroshima City Hall, Mr. Tsuboi was given the certificate by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui. In his acceptance speech, Mr. Tsuboi said, “The honor is more than I deserve. I will continue working with you to build a peaceful world. As my name Sunao suggests, I will make honest efforts and keep burning with spirit until I completely burn out.” (“Sunao” means honest or frank in Japanese.)

The mayor said, “Following Mr. Tsuboi’s tolerance and never-give-up spirit, the city government will continue conveying to the world that we do not need nuclear weapons for the well-being of humanity.”

Mr. Tsuboi was born in the Ondo district in the city of Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture. When he was a third-year student at the Hiroshima Technical Institute (now, the Faculty of Engineering at Hiroshima University), he experienced the atomic bombing on a street in Fujimi-cho (now part of Naka Ward), 1.2 kilometers from the hypocenter, on August 6, 1945. He suffered severe burns all over his body. After the war, he became a junior high school teacher and shared his A-bomb experience with his students. After retiring as a principal in 1986, he has helped spearhead the A-bomb survivors’ campaign against nuclear weapons.

The City of Hiroshima has granted the title of Honorary Citizen to 21 individuals since 1963, including the 2010 honorees Issey Miyake, a fashion designer, and Yoko Morishita, a ballerina.

“Never give up on a world without nuclear weapons”

by Keiichi Nagayama, Staff Writer

Sunao Tsuboi, the chair of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organizations, became an “Honorary Citizen of Hiroshima City” on April 5. He showed his delight in a humble manner and said, “I’m not an honorable person, but what I have done has been appreciated.”

During the award ceremony and in a press conference afterward, he looked back on his efforts in the survivors’ movement and expressed his hope that the movement would be carried on for the elimination of nuclear weapons and world peace.

When he was asked what stood out in his memory, the first thing he mentioned was meeting then United States President Barack Obama in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in May 2016. “We said to each other that we should work together for a world without nuclear weapons. I’ll never give up on what we promised to do,” said Mr. Tsuboi.

When he heard that the sitting president of the nation that dropped the atomic bomb would visit Hiroshima, he was “too happy and excited to sleep.” He expressed his hope that Mr. Obama would visit Hiroshima again.

On the other hand, in defiance to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted at the United Nations last July, U.S. President Donald Trump in February unveiled his administration’s intention to expand the role of nuclear weapons in the latest U.S. Nuclear Posture Review, which was released in February. “It’s deplorable. I’ve put my heart and soul into the cause of nuclear abolition. We must figure out how to eliminate war, including skirmishes,” said Mr. Tsuboi.

Mr. Tsuboi is now fighting cancer, heart trouble, and anemia. “I feel as if I’m being attacked by the devil all year round,” he said about his health condition. He had to come to the award ceremony in a wheelchair. About his future activities, he said, “I don’t think I can do so many things. But I want to organize the materials on my activities and the photos that have been stored in cardboard boxes.”

(Originally published on April 6, 2018)

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