HIROSHIMA: Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui has called for unity to achieve a world free from nuclear weapons, in a peace declaration he read out in English in a video message.

“Hiroshima considers it our duty to build in civil society a consensus that the people of the world must unite to achieve nuclear weapons abolition and lasting world peace,” Matsui said in the message recorded for the 75th anniversary on Thursday of the US atomic bombing of the western Japan city.

“As the only nation to suffer a nuclear attack, Japan must persuade the global public to unite with the spirit of Hiroshima,” he also said.

The video message will be uploaded to YouTube on Friday.

In usual years, the Hiroshima mayor reads out the peace declaration in English at a conference related to the atomic bombing anniversary. But this year, such delivery was canceled to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

Also on Thursday, Matsui read out the declaration in Japanese at an annual peace memorial ceremony attended by hibakusha atomic bombing survivors, families of the deceased, representatives of foreign countries and others.

In the closing days of World War II, Hiroshima was devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945.

JIJI Press