Hiroshima hears PM's nuke-free call
Source: Agencies |
August 7, 2011, Sunday
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Print Edition
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PRIME Minister Naoto Kan yesterday took his campaign against nuclear energy in Japan to Hiroshima, which 66 years ago became the world's first victim of an atomic bomb.
It marks a change of tack in a country that has until now carefully avoided linking its fast growing, and now discredited, nuclear power industry to its trauma as the only country to have been attacked with atomic bombs.
Kan, speaking at an anniversary ceremony for victims of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, repeated that the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years at Fukushima after a March earthquake convinced him Japan should end its dependence on nuclear power.
The damage from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami at the Fukushima nuclear plant, which the authorities are still trying to bring under control, has led to widespread calls for an end to reliance on nuclear power in the quake-prone country.
"I will deeply reflect on nuclear power's 'myth of safety,' investigate thoroughly the causes of the accident and fundamental measures to secure safety, as well as reduce the dependence on nuclear power plants and aim for a society that does not depend on nuclear power plants," Kan said.
Kazumi Matsui, Hiroshima's mayor and the son of an atomic bomb survivor, also pressed Tokyo to act after the Fukushima crisis traumatised the public. "The Japanese government should sincerely accept this reality and review its energy policy quickly," he said.
Questioned policy
It was the first time in decades that any Hiroshima mayor had questioned Japan's policy of developing nuclear energy during the annual ceremony, in which tens of thousands observed a minute of silence as the peace bell tolled.
Matsui said it was heartbreaking to see the devastation left by the March 11 quake and tsunami on the northeast coast and how it resembled what was left of Hiroshima after the bombing.
A US warplane dropped the atomic bomb on the western city on August 6, 1945 in the closing days of the Second World War. The death toll by the end of the year was estimated at about 140,000, out of the total 350,000 who lived there at the time.
A second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9. Japan surrendered six days later.
Prior to the Fukushima crisis, nuclear energy accounted for nearly a third of Japan's energy supply. But since the March 11 quake and tsunami triggered radiation leaks at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima plant 240km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, public sentiment has shifted.
"We hadn't thought so deeply about it until now. But I think it (nuclear plant) is not so different from the atomic bomb," said Michiko Kato, a 73-year-old survivor who lost her sister to the bomb.
Unpopular Kan, who has said he will resign without clarifying when, has seized the shift in the public mood and is calling for an overhaul of Japan's energy policy. About 70 percent of voters back his vision, a recent poll showed.
But it remains unclear what will happen to his vision after he resigns.
It marks a change of tack in a country that has until now carefully avoided linking its fast growing, and now discredited, nuclear power industry to its trauma as the only country to have been attacked with atomic bombs.
Kan, speaking at an anniversary ceremony for victims of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, repeated that the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years at Fukushima after a March earthquake convinced him Japan should end its dependence on nuclear power.
The damage from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami at the Fukushima nuclear plant, which the authorities are still trying to bring under control, has led to widespread calls for an end to reliance on nuclear power in the quake-prone country.
"I will deeply reflect on nuclear power's 'myth of safety,' investigate thoroughly the causes of the accident and fundamental measures to secure safety, as well as reduce the dependence on nuclear power plants and aim for a society that does not depend on nuclear power plants," Kan said.
Kazumi Matsui, Hiroshima's mayor and the son of an atomic bomb survivor, also pressed Tokyo to act after the Fukushima crisis traumatised the public. "The Japanese government should sincerely accept this reality and review its energy policy quickly," he said.
Questioned policy
It was the first time in decades that any Hiroshima mayor had questioned Japan's policy of developing nuclear energy during the annual ceremony, in which tens of thousands observed a minute of silence as the peace bell tolled.
Matsui said it was heartbreaking to see the devastation left by the March 11 quake and tsunami on the northeast coast and how it resembled what was left of Hiroshima after the bombing.
A US warplane dropped the atomic bomb on the western city on August 6, 1945 in the closing days of the Second World War. The death toll by the end of the year was estimated at about 140,000, out of the total 350,000 who lived there at the time.
A second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9. Japan surrendered six days later.
Prior to the Fukushima crisis, nuclear energy accounted for nearly a third of Japan's energy supply. But since the March 11 quake and tsunami triggered radiation leaks at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima plant 240km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, public sentiment has shifted.
"We hadn't thought so deeply about it until now. But I think it (nuclear plant) is not so different from the atomic bomb," said Michiko Kato, a 73-year-old survivor who lost her sister to the bomb.
Unpopular Kan, who has said he will resign without clarifying when, has seized the shift in the public mood and is calling for an overhaul of Japan's energy policy. About 70 percent of voters back his vision, a recent poll showed.
But it remains unclear what will happen to his vision after he resigns.
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