Hibakusha Groups Urge Japan Govt to Support Nuke Arms Ban Treaty

Hiroshima, Aug. 7 (Jiji Press)--Seven organizations of hibakusha atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima Prefecture have urged the Japanese government to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Officials of the groups handed a set of written requests, including the support for the treaty, to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during their meeting at a hotel in the city of Hiroshima, the capital of the western Japan prefecture.

The officials complained that the government has not actively engaged in peace diplomacy, shown enthusiasm about the elimination of nuclear weapons or worked out concrete policies on nuclear abolition while speeding up efforts to strengthen the country's defense capabilities.

In reply, Takaichi said, "Japan understands the inhumanity of nuclear arms more than any other country because it is the only nation attacked with nuclear weapons."

The city of Hiroshima and the southwestern Japan city of Nagasaki were destroyed by U.S. atomic bombs in August 1945, in the closing days of World War II.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]