Gensuikyo to seize opportunity to develop anti-nuclear movement -- Bikini Day events

The Japan Council against A & H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) will use a series of events around March 1 to commemorate Bikini Day as a springboard for increasing movements against nuclear weapons and a possible U.S. attack on Iraq.

From February 28 to March 2, Bikini Day will be marked by an international conference, rallies, and a peace march in Yaizu City and its neighboring city in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Overseas delegates to the Bikini Day events include Joseph Gerson of the American Friends Service Committee and Park Sunsong, Korean university professor and member of the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy.

Also from the Marshall Islands, which fell victim to the U.S. hydrogen bomb test explosion at Bikini Atoll, Senator Abacca Anjain-Maddison and Mayor Eldon Note will attend this year's Bikini Day activities.

On March 1, 1954, Japanese tuna fishing boat Daigo Fukuryu Maru (Lucky Dragon #5) was exposed to radiation from the U.S. hydrogen bomb test explosion at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. Eleven out of the 23 crew members have died so far.

The movement against A and H bombs was created in Japan following the U.S. hydrogen bomb test. Japan Gensuikyo says this year's Bikini Day events are particularly important because the U.S. government is preparing to launch a war on Iraq and even considering the use of nuclear weapons. (end)