A six-member delegation of the United Nations Foundation led by Bangladesh economist Muhammad Yunus, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, visited Hiroshima on October 28 and toured the Peace Memorial Museum. It was the first visit to Hiroshima by Yunus, 66, who said, “The dropping of the atomic bomb is the sin of all mankind, not just the United States. Every voice must be raised in condemnation of nuclear weapons.”
After laying flowers at the memorial cenotaph, the members of the delegation, which included Ted Turner, founder of CNN, visited the museum. They also attended a meeting with A-bomb survivors and university professors and heard accounts of the bombing from several of these survivors, including Akihiro Takahashi, 75, former director of the museum.
At a press conference Yunus said, “Nuclear disarmament means not only abolishing actual nuclear weapons. We must also eliminate the nuclear weapons in people’s hearts.” He also said he hoped that as a major power that does not possess nuclear weapons, Japan would become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and have the right to speak out.
When asked about the statement by Shoichi Nakagawa, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Policy Research Council, that in light of the nuclear test by North Korea, Japan should debate the need to possess nuclear weapons, Yunus said, “Precisely because Japan is a peaceful nation, it has earned the sympathy and respect of the world. If Japan decides to [arm itself with nuclear weapons] this will all come to nothing.”