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by Fumiyasu Miyano, Staff Writer

On the afternoon of July 16, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, who is visiting Japan in conjunction with the holding of the Tokyo Olympics, paid a visit to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, located in the city’s Naka Ward, and laid a wreath of flowers at the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims. Mr. Bach also met with an A-bomb survivor and delivered his message to the public. “I’m convinced that the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 will be a beacon of hope for a more peaceful future. I would like to contribute to world peace through the Olympic Games.” He did not, however, touch on the abolition of nuclear weapons in his message.

There are arguments for and against holding the Olympic and Paralympic Games amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the Hiroshima Prefectural government has called on the public to refrain from traveling to and from Tokyo, which is under a state of emergency. Against that backdrop, Mr. Bach’s unusual visit to the A-bombed city was not universally welcomed. He was accompanied by Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

After arriving at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Mr. Bach laid a wreath of flowers at the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims, guided by Hiroshima Prefectural Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki and Hiroshima City Deputy Mayor Nobuyuki Koike. At the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, he toured the museum’s exhibits, including items left by A-bomb victims. He then met and spoke with Fumiaki Kajiya, 82, an A-bomb survivor living in Hiroshima’s Asaminami Ward who was one of the Olympic torch relay runners.

In his speech, made on the first floor of the museum, IOC President Bach pledged to contribute to world peace through sports and the Olympic Games, noting that the United Nations Truce Resolution for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 had begun on that same day, July 16. He added, “All people on earth should visit Hiroshima. They can then feel deeply how important peace is.” He wrote in the museum’s guestbook, “We reaffirm our peace commitment.”

With Mr. Bach’s visit, the Hiroshima City government closed part of the Peace Memorial Park to the general public for three hours in the afternoon of July 16, and also temporarily closed the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum as well as the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims.

IOC President Bach arrived in Japan on July 8 and is staying in Tokyo, where a coronavirus state of emergency is in place. The Hiroshima Prefectural government has urged its citizens to refrain from traveling to and from areas under a state of emergency to the extent possible. Around Peace Memorial Park, several citizens groups staged a protest against Mr. Bach’s visit to Hiroshima and against the holding of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

According to the Hiroshima Prefectural government, this is the second visit to Peace Memorial Park by an incumbent IOC president, following the visit by President Juan Antonio Samaranch when the Asian Games Hiroshima were held in Hiroshima City, in October 1994. The Tokyo Organizing Committee initially explained that Mr. Bach was the first IOC president to visit but later corrected that information.

On the same day, IOC Vice President John Coates visited Nagasaki, the other A-bombed city.

(Originally published on July 17, 2021)