“Nuclear Weapons Attack Damage Estimate Report” to be translated into English
Apr. 17, 2008
by Hiromi Morita, Staff Writer
At a press conference held on April 14, 2008, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba announced that the city will translate a summary of the “Nuclear Weapons Attack Damage Estimate Report” into English by this summer. The report will be disseminated widely both in Japan and overseas through the member cities of Mayors for Peace and other organizations. The city compiled the report while formulating its Civil Protection Plan.
The report concludes that “There are no effective countermeasures against a nuclear attack. The only way to avoid certain destruction is to abolish nuclear weapons.” Printed materials in both Japanese and English, making use of photos and graphics, will be created. They will also be posted on the city's website.
The city plans to distribute the printed materials to the 2,195 member cities of Mayors for Peace as well as to the universities that offer the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Study Course, which the city supports. The city hopes to raise public awareness in the international community on this matter.
The city contended that national government guidelines based on the Civil Protection Law failed to reflect the true destructive power of nuclear weapons and so spent about a year estimating the likely damage if a nuclear weapons attack were to occur today in Hiroshima.
Mayor Akiba, pondering the possibility of also translating the material into languages other than English, stated, “In support of the anti-nuclear weapons movement, I would like other cities to be able to reference the damage estimate drawn up by an A-bombed city.”
At a press conference held on April 14, 2008, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba announced that the city will translate a summary of the “Nuclear Weapons Attack Damage Estimate Report” into English by this summer. The report will be disseminated widely both in Japan and overseas through the member cities of Mayors for Peace and other organizations. The city compiled the report while formulating its Civil Protection Plan.
The report concludes that “There are no effective countermeasures against a nuclear attack. The only way to avoid certain destruction is to abolish nuclear weapons.” Printed materials in both Japanese and English, making use of photos and graphics, will be created. They will also be posted on the city's website.
The city plans to distribute the printed materials to the 2,195 member cities of Mayors for Peace as well as to the universities that offer the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Study Course, which the city supports. The city hopes to raise public awareness in the international community on this matter.
The city contended that national government guidelines based on the Civil Protection Law failed to reflect the true destructive power of nuclear weapons and so spent about a year estimating the likely damage if a nuclear weapons attack were to occur today in Hiroshima.
Mayor Akiba, pondering the possibility of also translating the material into languages other than English, stated, “In support of the anti-nuclear weapons movement, I would like other cities to be able to reference the damage estimate drawn up by an A-bombed city.”
