A-bomb survivors, students hope for Obama visit to Hiroshima

HIROSHIMA, Aug. 6 Kyodo -
Marking the 64th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima on
Thursday, atomic-bomb survivors and students here expressed renewed hope of
progress toward the abolition of nuclear weapons around the world.
A group of junior and senior high school students in Hiroshima asked people on
the streets near the Peace Memorial Park to make paper cranes and write peace
messages so they could submit them to U.S. President Barack Obama, in the hope
that he will visit the city some day.
The members of the No Nuke Network Hiroshima of Junior High and Senior High
Students, founded in April, aim to make thousands of paper cranes, more than
the number of existing nuclear weapons worldwide, and believe a visit by Obama
to the city could be a major step toward abolition of nuclear weapons.
Yuri Nakagaki, 17, a second-year student at Hiroshima Jogakuin Junior & Senior
High School, said, ''Unlike former U.S. President George W. Bush who employed
power tactics to cope with his enemies, President Obama seems to understand the
pains of the weak due to his upbringing as a member of a social minority.''
Riyo Kimoto, a 16-year-old second-year student at Notre Dame Seishin Junior &
Senior High School, said, ''We'd like to invite him as one of the most
influential world leaders capable of changing the world, rather than as the
president of the country that dropped the atomic bomb.''
''We won't ask him to apologize. Instead, we will ask him to eliminate nuclear
weapons from the world,'' she said.
Yuji Kanemori, 17, leader of the group and second grader at Hiroshima Gakuin
Junior and Senior High School, said, ''Since we are not directly affected by
the bombing like our grandparents, we, as high school students, are in better
position to ask him to visit the city.''
It is expected that Obama will make his first visit as president to Japan in
November.
Not only the young students but also those who were affected by the atomic
bombing have been encouraged by Obama's appeal in Prague in April for a world
free of nuclear weapons.
Shohei Matsutomi, an 80-year-old survivor who visiting the city's Peace
Memorial Park, welcomed it, saying, ''I'm expecting significant progress toward
the achievement of world peace after listening to his speech.''
''I strongly hope that President Obama will visit this city, which would be a
milestone in history,'' he said.
Matsutomi was in his home in the city when the bomb was dropped but managed to
survive as he was pinned under a collapsed pillar while his home was
''completely flattened.''
Harushi Kimura, 79, also visited the park from the early hours in memory of his
older brother who was killed in their home when the bomb was dropped. ''I miss
my brother. I hope that the weapons which killed him will be completely wiped
out from the earth.''
Yasuko Yamazaki, 87, lost her older sister and uncle in the bombing after she
had moved to Osaka with her husband, and has attended the memorial ceremony at
the park every year since moving back to Hiroshima around thirty years ago.
''I hope I can see a world without nuclear weapons as proposed by President
Obama. His speech gave us hope that such a day will come,'' she said.
==Kyodo