| Chugoku Shimbun Peace News | |
| US Congresswoman opposed to terror retaliation listens to hibakusha | '02/8/4 |
Last September, immediately after the terrorist attacks in the US, one member of Congress opposed a resolution to give President Bush sweeping powers to initiate military action. That Congress member, Barbara Lee (56) of California (resident of Oakland), came to Hiroshima on August 3. After listening to survivors, Lee remarked, "Hiroshima has given me great strength to return [to the US] and keep up the struggle. Thank you."
After visiting Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba at City Hall, Lee presented flowers at the A-bomb Cenotaph in Peace Memorial Park in Naka-ku, Hiroshima. She then attended a luncheon where she met with hibakusha and members of local citizens groups. At the luncheon, Lee mentioned the Flame of Peace just north of the Cenotaph that will burn until nuclear weapons have been abolished. "I pray that someday in my lifetime I will see that flame extinguished." She listened to A-bomb accounts by Sunao Tsuboi (77), chairperson of the Japan Confederation of A and H Bomb Sufferers, and Akira Ishida (74), chairman of the National A-bombed Teachers Association. After lunch, Lee toured the Peace Memorial Museum with museum director Minoru Hataguchi. In the guest book she wrote, "I intend to work for justice and peace." After her tour of Hiroshima, Lee said, "Peace will definitely become a huge movement. Hiroshima clearly shows us that nuclear war is not an option." Congresswoman Lee was invited to Japan by a citizens group based in Shibuya, Tokyo. (Caption)With the A-bomb Dome in the background, Congresswoman Lee tells Museum
Director Hataguchi (left) "The members of the U.S. Congress and the
President need to come here too."
    
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