On the evening of August 6th 2012, the 67th anniversary of the atom bombing of Hiroshima, Mayor Kazumi Matsui read the Hiroshima Peace Declaration in English, in Peace Park, just across the river from the Atomic Bomb Dome.The atom bomb was dropped at 8.15am on 6th August 1945, and the reading of the Peace Declaration timed to commence at 8.15am American Central Time.Tomoko Watanabe of ANT-Hiroshima introduced the Mayor and thanked him afterwards. The speech was filmed and posted on YouTube and elsewhere to convey Hiroshima’s message of peace to the English speaking world.Every year, the Mayor of Hiroshima reads the Japanese version of the Peace Declaration at the Peace Memorial Ceremony in Peace Park in the morning.This is the fourth time that the city has produced a video of the English language version of the Declaration in the hope of spreading the word of support for elimination of nuclear weapons to the English speaking world, but especially to the USA. Mayor Matsui‘s speech also mentioned the Fukushima nuclear disaster and included a special message to the communities that have been affected by the crisis at Tepco’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
