HIROSHIMA, Aug. 6 Kyodo, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba on Friday changed a word he employed to characterize the United States' current nuclear policies as ''egocentric'' in this year's Peace Declaration, in response to a protest from Buddhists.

Akiba voiced serious concern over the United States' present-day policies in the declaration delivered at a memorial ceremony to mark the 59th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city.

After saying that humanity still lacks a lexicon capable of fully expressing the atomic bombing disaster, he said, ''…the egocentric worldview of the U.S. government is reaching extremes'' and that the United States has resumed research to make nuclear weapons smaller and more ''usable.''

The original text of the declaration, as distributed to the media and other organizations, used the term ''yuigadokuson (only I am holy),'' but the mayor changed the word to ''jikochushin (egocentric).''

''Yuigadokuson'' is based on one of the legends concerning the Buddha. He is said to have walked seven steps immediately after he was born and said, ''Holy am I alone throughout heaven and earth.''

In modern Japanese, the word ''yuigadokuson'' has come to mean a self-righteous attitude, or a ''holier-than-thou'' attitude.

The Honganji-ha sect of Jodo Shinshu (True Pure Land School), a Japanese School of Buddhism, asked the city government to correct the word, saying the secular meaning of the word is a result of the abuse of language and its true meaning is that there is not a single existence that is not precious and thus one's own existence is most precious and holy.

Akiba told reporters after the memorial service, ''The word has a secular meaning but it also has a religious meaning. I changed it because I thought the declaration should reflect the opinions of many people.''

The change was made shortly before the memorial ceremony was held Friday morning.

2004-08-06 13:10:18JST