Empress of Japan speaks against nuclear weapons
n a written statement to mark her 75th birthday, she said that Obama’s speech in Prague in April had shown a “strong determination to eliminate nuclear weapons”, and had contributed to his winning the Nobel peace prize earlier this month.
“The horror of nuclear weapons lies, in addition to the magnitude of the destruction, in the enormity and misery of the effects of radiation which continue to afflict the victims long afterwards,” she said.
Japan is the only country that has ever suffered a nuclear attack, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
Empress Michiko was 10 years old at the time. She was at primary school in Tokyo during World War Two, but was forced to leave due to US bombing raids, and resumed her studies after the war.
“As a country which has suffered atomic bombings, I believe that Japan should make efforts to seek further and deeper understanding of this from the international community,” she said.
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“The horror of nuclear weapons lies, in addition to the magnitude of the destruction, in the enormity and misery of the effects of radiation which continue to afflict the victims long afterwards,” she said.
Japan is the only country that has ever suffered a nuclear attack, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
Empress Michiko was 10 years old at the time. She was at primary school in Tokyo during World War Two, but was forced to leave due to US bombing raids, and resumed her studies after the war.
“As a country which has suffered atomic bombings, I believe that Japan should make efforts to seek further and deeper understanding of this from the international community,” she said.