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Hiroshima: A push for peace

With a blinding flash and a sky-high fireball, the world's first atomic bomb exploded over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. The American bomb killed about 70,000 Japanese instantly, and an equal number would soon die of radiation poisoning. The weapon saved American soldiers' lives and ended the Second World War, but it ushered in a new era of nuclear arms. CBC Archives looks at the atomic bomb, its impact on Hiroshima and its legacy.

As mayor of Hiroshima, Tadatoshi Akiba has seen the damage that a nuclear bomb can wreak on both a city and its people. So whenever a country tests a nuclear weapon, Akiba sends a message of protest to the country's leader. In this CBC Radio clip, Akiba explains that although he is not himself a bomb survivor, he feels it's his duty to remind the world of what happened in Hiroshima.

Because nuclear weapons tend to be aimed at cities, it will be city-dwellers who suffer if another bomb is ever dropped. Akiba is asking other city leaders to join him in Mayors for Peace, a global organization that advocates against nuclear weapons. As an international treaty on nuclear weapons faces collapse, the issue has become urgent. If nuclear weapons are not eliminated, Akiba says, the world may yet see "another bunch of hibakusha," or bomb-affected people. 
. Mayors for Peace was founded in 1982 after the then-mayor of Hiroshima, Takeshi Araki, attended a United Nations session on nuclear disarmament. Araki proposed a "Program to Promote the Solidarity of Cities Toward the Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons" and, along with his Nagasaki counterpart, invited other city mayors to join the program.

. In 2005 Mayors for Peace launched its Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons. The group hoped to begin international negotiations in 2005 and conclude them in 2010, with a target year of 2020 for the complete abolition of nuclear weapons.
. The group has over 600 member mayors from all over the world.

. The UN's international Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) came into force in 1970. Its aim was to halt the growth of nuclear weapons, promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and encourage disarmament.
. Under the treaty, the five nuclear weapon nations (China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States) agreed not to transfer weapons or technology to non-nuclear states.

. As of 2003, the NPT was signed by 189 countries and groups.
. In July 2005 the United States agreed to share some of its nuclear technology with India, a country that has never signed on to the NPT. Arms-control experts viewed the announcement with dismay, saying it weakened the power of the NPT and could encourage the nuclear ambitions of some non-nuclear nations.

. In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of Japan's surrender in the Second World War, Japan made an apology for its role in the war.
. But some observers said the country had yet to fully confront its wartime past. Maclean's noted that a Japanese statement of regret "carefully avoided use of the word 'apology,' and instead expressed only deep remorse for 'acts of aggression and colonial rule, carried out by our country in the past.'"
Medium: Radio
Program: The Current
Broadcast Date: April 22, 2004
Guest(s): Tadatoshi Akiba
Host: Anna Maria Tremonti
Duration: 12:44

Last updated: August 7, 2012

Page consulted on August 21, 2012

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