Students in Nagasaki Call for Nuclear Abolition

Nagasaki, Aug. 9 (Jiji Press)–High school students in the city of Nagasaki who serve as peace ambassadors and work on a campaign to collect signatures for nuclear abolition held a rally on Sunday, the 81st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the southwestern Japan city. About 100 people, including students and others, joined hands to form a human chain around a ground zero monument at a park, wishing for the realization of a world without nuclear weapons. “Taking seriously the earnest desire that war should never happen again, we have a responsibility to pass it on to the next generation,” Miori Nakayama, 17, a third-year high school student, said on behalf of the participants. “I want to send a message that the tragedy 81 years ago must never be repeated,” participant Ayane Nakao, 16, a second-year student at high school, said. Her great-grandparent was exposed to radiation from the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, in the closing days of World War II. “I want to create peace education in which people can think about how we can realize peace,” said 25-year-old graduate school student Sawa Yamanishi, whose grandmother was exposed to the atomic bomb at a location about 3.5 kilometers from the hypocenter. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]