Mayor of Hiroshima speaks in Manchester

On 18th October 2003, the Mayor of Hiroshima, Mr Tadatoshi Akiba, spoke at a public meeting of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in Manchester, UK. He spoke about the horrific experiences of citizens of his city in the aftermath of the dropping of the atomic bomb in 1945 by the United States. He argued that the world must never allow such a thing to happen again. He spoke about the dangers inherent in the current trend towards the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Mayor Akiba is a leading supporter of Mayors for Peace--an organisation which is attempting to enlist city mayors from around the world in the cause of peace and disarmamment. Mayor Akiba explained that there are now 554 mayors involved in this initiative. Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, is a keen supporter of the initiative.

Mayors for Peace, together with NGO representatives, is launching a grassroots campaign to call a halt to nuclear proliferation and for the disarmament of existing nuclear weapons.

In 2005, the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs in Japan, Mayors for Peace and NGO leaders will be building support for an effective intervention into the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty Review Conference scheduled for that year.

Mayor Akiba's talk provoked a lively debate and discussion at the meeting.

Another speaker, Aaron Tovish, from the Geneva based NGO Committee on Disarmament also spoke about the work of his committee which is working closely with Mayors for Peace.