Please try again M. Abe

August 7, 2015

Abe to mention nonnuclear principles in Nagasaki speech after Hiroshima flak

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/editorial/AJ201508070021

Kyodo, JIJI

HIROSHIMA – Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday he will include a pledge to observe the nation’s three nonnuclear principles in his upcoming memorial speech to remember the atomic bombing attack in Nagasaki, after failing to do so in Hiroshima on Thursday.

During a session of the Lower House’s Budget Committee, the prime minister emphasized that Japan’s principles of not possessing, producing or permitting nuclear weapons on Japanese territory remain unchanged.

“Maintaining the three nonnuclear principles is a matter of course,” he told the committee. “Our national policy remains unchanged.”

His failure to mention the long-standing policy in his memorial speech in Hiroshima on Thursday drew flak from opposition members.

“He couldn’t have omitted (the principles) by accident,” Democratic Party of Japan Secretary-General Yukio Edano told a party meeting on Friday.

Meanwhile, seven groups of atomic bomb survivors, or hibakusha, in Hiroshima urged Abe on Thursday to withdraw government-sponsored security bills under discussion at the Diet.

At a meeting with Abe in the western Japanese city, representatives of the groups said that the bills are clearly unconstitutional.

Abe said the bills will help prevent conflicts from occurring, contributing to Japan’s efforts to keep its pledge never to fight another war. He also said the country needs the legislation in order to maintain peace for the Japanese people.

However, Yukio Yoshioka, 86, chief of a liaison council of hibakusha groups in Hiroshima, said, “We must not repeat our mistakes and make Japan a country where those killed in the atomic bombings cannot rest in peace.”

The meeting between Abe and the seven hibakusha groups followed a ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima in the morning.

Japan’s pledge not to fight a war and its policy of pursuing peace will remain intact, Abe said, adding that he will try to explain more clearly why the bills are needed and will heed public opinion.

After the meeting, Yoshioka said that he was disgusted with Abe, who only talked about what sounds palatable on the surface.

“The government’s current attitude is trampling hibakusha’s wishes and feelings,” he added.

Sunao Tsuboi, 90, head of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of Atomic Bomb Sufferers organizations, said that war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution lies at the core of Japan, calling on Abe to listen to the voices of people.