Ambassadors send peace messages to Hiroshima
Aug. 1, Kyodo - An exhibition of peace messages sent to Hiroshima by ambassadors from 44 countries to Japan opened Sunday at the Peace Memorial Museum.
The envoys, including those of India and
Pakistan, which conducted nuclear tests last
year, contributed the peace messages in response
to a request from Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi
Akiba.The ambassadors commended Hiroshima's efforts to remind the world of the horror of nuclear weapons and the importance of peace and explained measures their countries have taken to promote the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Pakistan said it is ''fully aware of the pain and horror'' suffered by the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while India stressed the importance of striving to ''rid the world of all nuclear weapons'' by making Hiroshima's tragedy a lesson.
The two countries, however, defended the nuclear tests they conducted in May last year ''as a last resort'' for self-defense, saying they were forced to carry out the tests because of a lack of security guarantees and the failure of the five established nuclear powers in their disarmament efforts.
Akiba asked 126 nations to send peace messages, but none of the five nuclear powers did so.
The ambassador of Kazakhstan, where some people suffer from the aftereffects of 400 nuclear tests conducted by the Soviet Union between 1949 and 1991, said his country and Japan are united by a ''common tragedy in the past'' and urged Tokyo to jointly work for the total elimination of nuclear weapons.
Yugoslavia said because both the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and air strikes against Yugoslavia by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization killed innumerable innocent civilians, the two countries are alike in pressing the world not to repeat such tragedies in the future.
The exhibition, part of events marking the 54th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, will be held until Aug. 31. The exhibition also features essays on peace written by elementary school children.
Picture Caption: The Peace messages from each country's ambassadors to Japan
