Rally held in memory of U.S. H-bomb test explosion victim

   About 200 people joined in a rally on September 23 in memory of Kuboyama Aikichi, a victim of a U.S. nuclear test explosion, in Yaizu City in Shizuoka Prefecture.

   Kuboyama was on board the Fifth Lucky Dragon when it was showered with radioactive fallout from a U.S. hydrogen bomb test explosion at Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954. Kuboyama died due to radiation exposure on September 23 the same year, leaving as his death wish that he should be the last victim of A- and H- Bombs.

   Participants marched in demonstration from JR Yaizu Station to a temple where Kuboyama was buried.

   In front of his tomb, Shizuoka Prefectural Consumers’ Cooperative Union Chair Koshibuchi Kenji on behalf of the rally organizers said, “Let us make efforts to achieve the elimination of nuclear weapons as well as the establishment of a social system for relief and assistance for Hibakusha.”

   Representing the Organizing Committee of the World Conference against A & H Bombs, Japan Council against A & H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) Deputy Secretary General Mizutani Tatsuya made a pledge to fulfill Kuboyama’s wish.

- Akahata, September 24, 2007