Photo/Illutration Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui gives the peace declaration at the 2023 Peace Memorial Ceremony in Hiroshima's Naka Ward, on Aug. 6, 2023. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

HIROSHIMA—Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui unveiled on Aug. 1 the outline of the peace declaration he will give at the annual Peace Memorial Ceremony here on Aug. 6, which will include the words of a former Soviet Union leader. 

The mayor said that he will call on citizens around the world to unite and act to encourage political leaders who rely on nuclear deterrence to change their policies.

Matsui said that he will point out that mistrust between countries is deepening, citing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the worsening conflict between Israel and Palestine as examples.

He will assert that those crises can be solved through dialogue between political leaders, and will quote former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who, alongside former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, helped end the Cold War and paved the way for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

“It is possible that nuclear weapons will be used in wars, as the situation surrounding the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is fundamentally changing,” Matsui said.

“I want the political leaders of countries that have nuclear weapons to understand it again,” he said.

Related News