Hiroshima, Nagasaki A-bomb survivors protest U.S. nuclear tests+

     HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI, July 20 Kyodo -
     Atomic bomb survivors' groups in Hiroshima and Nagasaki lodged protests against the United States Wednesday for conducting subcritical nuclear tests in December and February, which it revealed the day before.
     In Hiroshima, survivors of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing urged U.S. President Barack Obama ''to go back to the Prague Statement,'' in which he called for a nuclear-free world in 2009.
     ''Is this what a country led by a president, who has declared to abolish atomic weapons and has also received the Nobel Peace Prize, would do? I urge the Japanese government to protest strongly,'' said Kazuo Okoshi, secretary general of a group headed by Kazushi Kaneko.
     In Nagasaki, survivor Sakue Shimohira, 76, said, ''For what purpose are the tests conducted? Humans and nuclear weapons cannot coexist. I wish the United States would understand the feelings of the people who have gone on living while suffering the damage caused by radiation exposure.''
     Koichi Kawano, the head of an antinuclear group that supports A-bomb survivors in Nagasaki, suspected that the United States' ''real intent is to retain its position as a nuclear power,'' given the repeated subcritical nuclear and other experiments to test new nuclear technology.
     The latest revelation by the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration followed a subcritical nuclear test in September, which marked the first of such experiments since Obama took office in January 2009.
==Kyodo
2011-07-21 00:36:46