A woman, probably a survivor (hibakusha), prays for peace. From a news report on the 62th anniversary of the atomic bomb.
Let Nagasaki be the last city to be a-bombed. Don't let any city be a military target: we already have too many targeted cities in wars -- Guernica, Dresden, Nanking, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fallujah, Qana...
-- TV screen, the NHK's 7 O'Clock News, 9th August 2007.
Paper cranes at the Peace Memorial Park, Nagasaki. From a news report on the 62th anniversary of the atomic bomb.
-- TV screen, the NHK's 7 O'Clock News, 9th August 2007.
The Peace Declaration by Mr Tomihisa Taue (田上富久), the mayor of Nagasaki City. From a news report on the 62th anniversary of the atomic bomb.
Mr Tagami was elected mayor of the city in April this year after the former mayor, Mr Iccho Ito was shot dead on 17th April.
Very recently, one of the cabinet ministers - the Defence Minister at the time - was forced to resign after he made a gaffe about the atomic bomb. (He said the atomic bombs were not to be helped to end the war, "あれで戦争が終わったのだからしかたがない" in Japanese.) The disgraced minister, Mr Fumio Kyuma, is from Nagasaki, and he stirred up anger among the Japanese people, especially the voters and citizens in Nagasaki.
Today the mayor began his speech by mentioning the late Mr Ito's efforts in trying to ban the nuclear weapons. He urged the international society should do more to revive the NPT and warned about the nuclear crisis we are facing now. He pointed out that Japan is the only country that has this experience, and that it should take an active and leading part on the basis of the article 9 of the constitution. Then he went on describing our "reality".
From the English translation of the Peace Declaration:
www1.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp/abm/abm_e/heiwasengen/seng...
"Today, in the midst of erroneous interpretation of the atomic bombings (as expressed by Mr Kyuma) and discussion of potential nuclear weapons possession even in Japan, it is necessary to enact the Three Non-Nuclear Principles into law, not merely stating them as national policy."
The Prime Minister of Japan, Mr Shinzo Abe, was also present at the ceremony to make a speech, but I found nothing new other than what he said on the 6th in Hiroshima: he is the one who was mainly responsible for the "discussion of potential nuclear weapons possession even in Japan" before he became the PM. Now as a PM, he should answer the Nagasaki mayor's strong request "to enact the Three Non-Nuclear Principles into law." But I don't know what will happen.
-- TV screen, the NHK's 7 O'Clock News, 9th August 2007.
A seaside village in Nagasaki prefecture. From a news report on the 62th anniversary of the atomic bomb.
See notes for the translation of subtitles.
en.wikipedia.org has a good entry about the bombing:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Na...
-- TV screen, the NHK's 7 O'Clock News, 9th August 2007.
Four pictures from a news report on the 62th anniversary of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. See notes for subtitle (rough) translation.
The Statue for Peace in Nagasaki, which stands at the Ground Zero, is a work by 北村西望 (Kitamura Seibo: 1884 - 1987), a famed sculpter from Nagasaki. He began working on this statue in 1950, five years after the bombing, and completed in 1955. It is a combination of the God's love and Buddha's mercy, with the right hand pointing to the sky to give warnings, and the left hand stretching horisontally for peace.
Nagasaki area has a lot of Christians because that was where the Portuguese Jesuit missionaries arrived in the 16th century. Before long, the government banned all the missionary activities in Japan, but people in Nagasaki kept their faith, despite all the severe religious oppression against them. They have many Catholic churchesin Nagasaki, and the cathedral called Urakami Tenshu-do ("tenshu" means "the lord").
The cathedral was very badly damaged by the bomb on 9th August 1945. Wikipedia in English has an entry for the cathedral.
-- TV screen, the NHK's 7 O'Clock News, 9th August 2007.
en.wikipedia.org has a good entry about the bombing:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Na...
Four pictures from a news report on the 62th anniversary of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
See notes for the translation of subtitles.
-- TV screen, the NHK's 7 O'Clock News, 9th August 2007.
en.wikipedia.org has a good entry about the bombing:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Na...