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The Key to a World without Nuclear Weapons

Videotaped message from Hiroshima, calling for nuclear abolition, to be shown on day after Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony

by Yoshiaki Kido, Staff Writer

On November 27, a videotaped message was filmed in front of the A-bomb Dome in Naka Ward, Hiroshima, to commemorate the awarding of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), an international non-governmental organization (NGO). About 80 people, including A-bomb survivors and citizens, took part in the filming and expressed their hopes for the abolition of nuclear weapons. On December 11, the day after the award ceremony, the video will be shown at a concert in Oslo, Norway to celebrate the prize.

The videotaped message was organized by Peace Boat, a Tokyo-based NGO, which is one of ICAN’s partner organizations. Holding a banner with the ICAN logo and an appeal for promoting the nuclear weapons ban treaty, the participants said in English: “Abolish nuclear weapons. Hiroshima with ICAN.”

The Nobel Prize Committee, the host of the concert, has asked ICAN to submit a one-minute video from each of its partner organizations around the world. Akira Kawasaki, 48, a member of Peace Boat’s executive committee and ICAN’s international steering committee, said, “Along with the A-bomb survivors who won’t be able to join the award ceremony, we want to deliver a message, from Oslo, from people around the world who wish to see the elimination of nuclear arms.”

Emiko Okada, 80, a resident of Higashi Ward and an A-bomb survivor who took part in the filming, said, “When they made the video, I tried to convey the idea that this is now the starting point for finally realizing the abolition of nuclear weapons.”

(Originally published on November 28, 2017)

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