Bikini Day National Rally held

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Bikini Day National Rally held

The Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) on February 28 held the Bikini Day National Rally in Shizuoka City with 900 people attending.

Japan Gensuikyo Secretary General Taka Hiroshi in his keynote speech criticized the Japanese government for running counter to the world trend towards the establishment of an international order of peace and justice and for attempting to destroy the peace Constitution.

Taka called on participants to increase the movement to force the government to make a "Declaration of a Nuclear Weapon-Free Japan" to the United Nations to call for the abolition of nuclear weapons and declare that Japan adheres to the Three Non-Nuclear Principles.

Aiming at the World Conference against A and H Bombs in August, he proposed to increase public awareness through the signature collection campaign, "For the Swift Abolition of Nuclear Weapons," to develop the movement throughout Japan for the "Declaration of a Nuclear Weapon-Free Japan," and to continue to support A-bomb survivors (Hibakusha) in their concerted lawsuits demanding official recognition of their illnesses as A-bomb related.

Oishi Matashichi, a former crew member of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru, a Japanese fishing boat exposed to radiation from a U.S. H-bomb test explosion at Bikini Atoll 53 years ago, and Tanaka Terumi, Secretary General of the Japan Confederation of A- & H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), gave speeches.

Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Ogata Yasuo in his guest speech pointed out that regional communities of nations for peace are developing worldwide and that international public opinion is calling for the peaceful and political settlement of disputes, and stressed that such world trends are linked to Japan Gensuikyo's tenacious struggle for the elimination of all nuclear weapons from the earth.
- Akahata, March 1, 2007