World Children's Peace Statue unveiled

The World Children's Peace Statue was unveiled in a War Damage Resource Center in Koto Ward, Tokyo, on May 5, Children's Day.

Tokyo's high school students who contributed their energy to establishing the statue, have pledged to each other to work for a future free of war.

They joined the international movement of young people to establish the Children's Peace Statue. U.S. teenagers who heard the story of the Hiroshima A-Bomb Children's Statue six years ago started this movement, and built their own statue in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In May 1999, Tokyo's high school students formed a Tokyo committee and collected more than 10 million yen (about 83.000 dollars) for Tokyo's World Children's Peace Statue. A junior high school student designed the statue.

Shirakami Yuriko, 18-year-old head of the Tokyo committee, said that the statue carries the anti-war message of Japanese children to the rest of the world.

A 16-year-old high school girl, who is active in a Hiroshima movement to establish a World Children's Peace Statue in Hiroshima, said she will do her utmost for the statue to be completed on August 6, the 56th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. (end)