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While supporters celebrate, groups calling for further deliberation express disappointment over Hiroshima City Council’s adoption of peace ordinance

On June 25, a peace promotion ordinance proposal was approved at a plenary session of the Hiroshima City Council, leading to growing disappointment among A-bomb survivors and citizens groups that had called for revision of the proposed ordinance and postponement of its adoption. One of the articles in the ordinance stipulates that “The Peace Memorial Ceremony shall be performed in solemnity,” but some voiced concerns over how that could be put into actual practice. One citizens group that had expressed its support of the ordinance, however, welcomed adoption of the new city law.

The Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organizations (Hiroshima Hidankyo, chaired by Sunao Tsuboi) had requested the city council to hold careful deliberations about the ordinance. Toshiyuki Mimaki, 79, the group’s acting chair, expressed dismay at the ordinance adoption. “Our group had wanted the ordinance to be something both the city government and citizens could rely on in future years. That’s why we asked the city council to continue deliberations as long as opinion about it was divided,” Mr. Mimaki said. “I now feel empty, as if our wishes had been ignored.”

Kunihiko Sakuma, 76, chair of the other Hiroshima Prefectural Hidankyo, argued, “The biggest problem was that deliberations were insufficient to bridge the difference in opinions. The debate should be continued from this point forward, with the possibility kept open for revising the ordinance.”

A group of young people in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward called “The citizens campaign seeking improvement of the peace promotion ordinance,” opposed hasty enactment of the ordinance. “All Hiroshima citizens, as eligible voters, must accept the reality that the city has enacted an ordinance that could result in pressure on us to conform,” said Kuniko Watanabe, 40, the group’s chair.

Katsuya Ishikawa, 65, chair of a citizens group called the “Association of Hiroshima citizens hoping for a tranquil August 6,” which lobbied for passage of the ordinance, welcomed the adoption by the city council. “We’re pleased that an ordinance for creation of a peaceful future is in place.” With an eye on the demonstrations staged by activist groups near the venue of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony, Mr. Ishikawa added, “We will ask the city government to change that situation.”

(Originally published on June 26, 2021)

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