Latest news with #A-bomb
Kyodo News
3 days ago
- Politics
- Kyodo News
Nagasaki considering Taiwan's request to attend A-bomb ceremony
KYODO NEWS - 5 minutes ago - 19:28 | World, All, Japan The mayor of Nagasaki said Monday he is considering how to respond to Taiwan's request to attend this year's ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city in August. Taiwan, which has never been officially invited to the memorial event, has expressed its wish to join for the first time, according to the city. Mayor Shiro Suzuki did not disclose details regarding Taipei's request or specify when the city would respond. Nagasaki plans to send invitations to all countries and regions that have diplomatic missions in Japan or representative offices at the United Nations. Taiwan does not fall into either category. Suzuki said last month that the southwestern Japan city's policy remains unchanged, drawing a contrast with Hiroshima, which indicated it would add the island to the list of participants of the city's memorial event after Taipei expressed its wish to join. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and three days later in Nagasaki killed more than 200,000 people by the end of that year. Each year, the cities hold memorial ceremonies to mourn the victims and pray for lasting peace. Related coverage: Over 90 nations call for preserving A-bomb memories in U.N. meeting Japan imperial couple mourn Iwoto war dead in WWII 80th anniv. visit
The Mainichi
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Mainichi
Imperial Couple welcome Swedish king, other foreign dignitaries visiting Japan for Expo
TOKYO -- Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako hosted a dinner on May 15 at the Imperial Palace for Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf, who is visiting Japan for Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai. Emperor Naruhito greeted the king with a smile and a handshake at the entrance of the palace. The Imperial Couple's daughter Princess Aiko joined the conversation after dinner. Japan's Imperial Family has long-standing friendships with various royal families around the world. Since this spring, numerous foreign royals have visited Japan for the Expo, and Emperor Naruhito has been meeting with them or hosting dinners together with Empress Masako. On April 25, the Imperial Couple hosted a dinner for King Frederik of Denmark, with whom they have been close since their days as crown prince and crown princess. Ahead of their meeting, the Danish king had offered flowers at the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, for which Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako reportedly expressed their deep gratitude. Princess Aiko joined the conversation after the dinner on this occasion, too. Other visitors to the Imperial Palace have included Crown Prince Tupouto'a 'Ulukalala and Crown Princess Sinaitakala Tuku'aho of Tonga, and Oman's Crown Prince Sayyid Theyazin bin Haitham Al Said. Beyond royalty, Emperor Naruhito has also met with senior government officials from various countries. The Imperial Couple will continue to welcome many foreign dignitaries visiting Japan in connection with the Expo. (Japanese original by Nao Yamada, Tokyo City News Department)
NHK
16-05-2025
- General
- NHK
Hiroshima's A-Bomb Survivor Trees through the Seasons
Trees that survived the A-bomb have inspired many in Hiroshima. 159 such trees are still alive, but some are nearing their end. We follow a tree surgeon and others who love and care for them.
Japan Today
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
Japan congratulates new pope; Aso may attend inaugural Mass
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has sent a congratulatory message on the election of Pope Leo XIV as the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church, saying he hopes to foster Japan-Vatican ties and work together for global peace. Survivors of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings also welcomed the first American-born pope and urged him to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese government, meanwhile, is considering sending former Prime Minister Taro Aso, a Catholic, to the new pope's inaugural Mass, scheduled to be held on May 18, a source familiar with the matter said. Aso currently serves as top adviser to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, headed by Ishiba. The new pontiff's predecessor Pope Francis called for the abolition of nuclear weapons during his trips to the two cities in 2019. "I hope the new pope will visit us soon, as the atomic bomb survivors are aging," said Toshiyuki Mimaki, who heads the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organizations. Teruko Yokoyama, who leads a group of A-bomb survivors in Nagasaki, said the emergence of a pope from the United States, a nuclear state, marks a "big step forward for the abolition of nuclear weapons." © KYODO
The Mainichi
06-05-2025
- General
- The Mainichi
Hibakusha poet who also blamed Hiroshima for atomic bombing leaves powerful message
HIROSHIMA -- "Even if the first time was a mistake, the second time is betrayal. Don't forget our pledge to the dead." These words were repeated by poet Sadako Kurihara (1913-2005), who survived the Hiroshima atomic bombing and consistently condemned the crime of nuclear weapons. Masahiko Ikeda, 78, who studies Kurihara's handwritten manuscripts and notes, describes her as someone who "stubbornly thought about peace and stayed true to her principles." A room in a building near Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park is packed with materials about Kurihara. Ikeda, secretary-general of the citizens group Association for Preservation of Literary Materials of Hiroshima, has been organizing more than 100 documents he inherited in 2023 when Kurihara's former home was demolished. Some notes are scrawled hastily on notebooks and the backs of flyers, making them hard to decipher. "She was not only a poet -- she also made incisive statements as a thinker. We have to make sure everyone can read her words," Ikeda said, sometimes going as far as producing clean copies to preserve traces of her thoughts that never made it into published books or pamphlets for successive generations. Born on the outskirts of Hiroshima, Kurihara married Tadaichi Kurihara, an anarchist, in 1931. Despite suppression of their beliefs and living in poverty, she continued to write antiwar poetry throughout World War II. On Aug. 6, 1945, at age 32, Kurihara became a hibakusha survivor of the atomic bombing while in the former town of Gion (now Asaminami Ward), about 4 kilometers from the hypocenter. Three days later, she went to central Hiroshima to retrieve the body of a schoolgirl neighbor who had died from radiation, and witnessed the devastation firsthand. The year after Japan's defeat, Kurihara launched a journal with her husband and others, devoting herself to her creative work. She not only told of the victims' suffering -- she also addressed Hiroshima's responsibility as a military city before the war. In her 1972 poem, "When We Say Hiroshima," she wrote: "That we may say 'Hiroshima' and hear in reply, gently, 'Ah, Hiroshima,' we first must wash the blood off our own hands." Ikeda shared his view that, "As an A-bomb survivor, it was groundbreaking that she was quick to hold Hiroshima responsible for the bombing." Kurihara also participated in nuclear abolition and pro-constitution campaigns, joining sit-ins to protest every time a nuclear test was conducted. In 1991, even as threatening phone calls and letters came to her home after joining demonstrations against overseas dispatches of the Self-Defense Forces, she never wavered. Why did she hold fast to her antiwar and antinuclear stances throughout her life? Many hibakusha writers from Hiroshima, such as Tamiki Hara, Sankichi Toge and Yoko Ota, died young. Ikeda said of Kurihara, who lived to 92, "She had the determination that she must take up the final baton of atomic bomb literature and keep running. She never stopped questioning what Hiroshima meant to the very end." Kazuko Kojima, 79, an atomic bomb survivor from Hiroshima's Minami Ward, still treasures a letter she received from Kurihara in her later years. The letter offers warm words: "You are the one testifying to Hiroshima's potential. Please, live on in good health forever." Kojima was the real-life inspiration for the newborn baby depicted in Kurihara's representative poem, "Umashimenkana" (Bringing Forth New Life), which describes a child coming into the world in a basement crowded with wounded people just after the bombing. Despite receiving media attention through the poem, Kojima did not initially become active in peace movements. When she confided, "I feel guilty for not being able to do anything," Kurihara comforted her like a mother: "Just the fact that you are living and healthy is enough. So, it's OK." Buoyed by these words, Kojima now values the many connections born from "Umashimenkana" and has joined activities as a result. In 2022, she organized an exhibit in Hiroshima featuring Kurihara's handwritten manuscripts with the help of a midwife friend. This January, she registered A-bomb testimonies of her mother and others at the National Hiroshima Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims in Hiroshima's Naka Ward. Did Kurihara entrust hope to Kojima, the child born amid the ruins? One of her letters continued, "I have been happy because I have been able to live my life without any regrets even if I die at any time. Meeting you has made me live strongly." (Japanese original by Kana Nemoto, Hiroshima Bureau)
