Antinuke group protests U.S. sales of A-bomb souvenirs

Aug. 4, Kyodo - A major Japanese antinuclear group on Wednesday accused a state-run U.S. museum of insulting A-bomb victims for selling earring replicas of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

At a press conference, the Communists-backed Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo) said it recently learned of the sales from the National Atomic Museum's Web site.

It said the museum is selling earring replicas of ''Little Boy'' and ''Fat Man,'' the two bombs dropped on the Japanese cities on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945, as well as ornaments to honor the air force unit assigned to drop the bombs.

''We are enraged by the United States, which proudly presents replicas of nuclear weapons without showing any repentance for the bombing,'' Gensuikyo official Koichi Akamatsu said.

The group, supported by the Japanese Communist Party, said it would adopt a resolution against the museum's sales of the goods at its ongoing international conference in Hiroshima and lobby the Japanese government to urge Washington to stop the sales.

The sales represent ''the U.S. government's justification of dropping the A-bombs and defiance of the antinuclear movement,'' Akamatsu said.

Gensuikyo members also took issue with the museum's claim that the use of atomic bombs saved many U.S. lives.

The goods are being sold at between 10 to 60 dollars at the museum's store in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and over the Internet, the Japanese group said.

Tokihiko Tagawa, 70, an A-bomb survivor, told the press conference that admiring the use of ''inhuman'' nuclear weapons is ''impermissible.

Picture Caption: The earring replicas of "Little Boy"(right) of Hiroshima A-bomb and "Fat Man" of Nagasaki sold at the National Atomic Museum of US

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