Hiroshima mayor urges M’sia to speak out against nuclear arms
KUALA LUMPUR: Countries like Malaysia, which does not possess nuclear weapons, need to speak out to the world that it is inhumane to continue to hold such weapons, Japanese Ambassador to Malaysia Dr Makio Miyagawa said.
“What is important now is to talk to people of the devastating effects of weapons and Japan is the only country in the world which experienced such atrocities and devastation effect of nuclear weapons,” he told the media.
The envoy had earlier attended a special lecture and panel discussion “From Hiroshima to Our World Without Nuclear Weapons - Beyond Human Atrocities” held at the Universiti of Malaya, here yesterday.
“Nuclear weapons can cause terrible effects upon your sons and daughters and offsprings. We ought to keep a healthy human brain and body for our future generations,” he said.
He hoped Malaysians will join Japan in expressing its will that the world should be built without nuclear weapons.
Earlier, Japan’s Hiroshima city mayor Kazumi Matsui, in his presentation, called for the promotion of peace and urged policy makers to visit the atomic bombed cities.
“It is important to have policymakers from all over the world come to Hiroshima, understand the reality of the atomic bombing, share in our wishes for peace and then solidify their determination to stand for nuclear abolition,” he said.
Matsui, who is also president of the Mayors for Peace, said the organisation would continue to work towards total abolition of nuclear weapons.
The Mayors for Peace, a nongovernmental organisation in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, was formed in 1982 at the 2nd UN Special Session on Disarmament held at the UN Headquarters in New York.
As of July 1, membership stood at 7,095 cities in 161 countries and regions.
Meanwhile, the session moderator, Dr Md Nasrudin Md Akhir, Assoc Prof at the Department of East Asian Studies, UM’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, said that it was important to conduct extensive research on nuclear technology and at the same time educate people about the energy form.
“Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) wish no one else will ever suffer what they have suffered, and that the abolition of nuclear weapons is the only solution,” he said.
During the event, Erique Phang Li- Onn from UM’s Law Faculty, was appointed as Youth Communicator for a World without Nuclear Weapons by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The programme is to support Hibakusha to tell their first-hand experiences on the consequence of the use of nuclear weapons. — Bernama