By SHOHEI OKADA/ Staff Writer
March 9, 2022 at 18:50 JST
HIROSHIMA--Peace activists and atomic bomb survivors held a candlelit vigil here on March 8 to send a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin: "End the war."
“(He) trampled on our philosophy in a single sweep,” Kunihiko Sakuma, 77, the chairman of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organization, said about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and threat of using nuclear weapons.
“We need to come together and speak in union to work toward a world without nuclear weapons,” Sakuma told the crowd gathered in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome.
About 100 people joined the evening vigil hosted by the Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition.
They placed 1,300 candles to spell out anti-war and anti-nuclear messages, such as, “No war” and “No nukes,” both in English and Russian.
Haruko Moritaki, 83, a special adviser for the alliance who has been active in the nuclear abolition movement, lit each candle alongside fellow pacifists.
Citing Russia's attack on Ukraine and seizure of its nuclear power facilities, Moritaki said that a “situation equal to the use of nuclear weapons could happen.”
“What we have warned of is on the verge of becoming a reality,” she said. “And I shudder at the very thought.”
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Protesting the Russian invasion of Ukraine, people light candles that spell out anti-war and anti-nuclear messages in English and Russian in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima on March 8. (Jun Ueda)
