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Japan opposition backs Obama's nuclear-free plan

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-06 21:11

HIROSHIMA, Japan: Japan's main opposition Democratic Party, which has a good shot at winning power in a general election this month, said on Thursday it backed US President Barack Obama's call to rid the world of nuclear arms.

A girl prepares to release a paper lantern on the Motoyasu river in remembrance of atomic bomb victims on the 64th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima August 6, 2009. Japan said it would stand by a self-imposed ban on nuclear weapons as it commemorated the anniversary on Thursday of the world's first atomic attack on the western city of Hiroshima. Seen in the background is the gutted A-bomb dome. [Agencies]

In the western city of Hiroshima to remember the victims of the world's first atomic attack in 1945, party leader Yukio Hatoyama also said Japan should appeal to world leaders to abandon nuclear weapons.

Prime Minister Taro Aso, his Liberal Democratic Party's poll ratings sagging ahead of the Aug 30 election, reaffirmed Tokyo's self-imposed ban on nuclear weapons.

Tensions in the region were heightened in May when its neighbor the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted a nuclear test.

"Realising a nuclear-free world as called for by US President Obama is exactly the moral mission of our country as the only atomic-bombed state," Hatoyama, quoted by Kyodo news agency, told a ceremony marking the 1945 attack.

Related readings:  Japan opposition DPJ won't shift course on DPRK  Japan PM says nuclear arms ban to remain  Hiroshima mourns atomic bomb anniversary  US reiterates to prevent Iran from obtaining nukes  ROK envoy to meet US officials over DPRK

He was backed by the mayor of Hiroshima, where more than 260,000 people died from the bomb, either from the blast or later from the effects of the nuclear explosion.

"We can abolish nuclear weapons. Yes, we can," Tadatoshi Akiba said in a speech at a memorial ceremony, in an echo of Obama's election catch phrase.

UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE

Japan often refers to its position as the only country to suffer nuclear attacks when calling for the abolition of atomic weapons. The United States dropped a second atomic bomb on the southern city of Nagasaki days after the attack on Hiroshima.

While many in Japan oppose nuclear arms, Tokyo benefits from the shelter of a "nuclear umbrella" extended by its biggest ally, Washington.

Aso said Japan stood by its fundamental non-nuclear principles and would "take the lead within the international community to abolish nuclear weapons and bring about lasting peace".

But, speaking to reporters after attending the main commemorations, he said the nuclear umbrella was vital as it was unlikely all nuclear powers would give up nuclear arms at once.

"It's hard to say that a country will abandon (nuclear weapons) right away when another does," he said.

A former government official said in recent interviews that Tokyo had secretly agreed with Washington in 1960 that Japan would allow stopovers by US military aircraft or vessels carrying nuclear weapons. Japan denies having made such a deal.

Later on Thursday, a former air force chief of staff gave a speech in Hiroshima calling on Japan to protect itself with nuclear weapons.

"As the only country to have experienced nuclear bombs, we should go nuclear to make sure we don't suffer a third time," Kyodo news agency quoted Toshio Tamogami as telling an audience at an event the city's mayor had asked him to postpone to a less sensitive date.

More than 1,000 people gathered for a protest in central Hiroshima against nuclear weapons, many of them emphasising their opposition to Tamogami's views.

Tamogami was fired as head of Japan's air force last year after he wrote an essay arguing Japan had not been an aggressor in World War Two.