Hiroshima mayor condemns US nuclear test in Nevada

Hiroshima: Mayor of Hiroshima city, which suffered the world's first atomic bombing, on Thursday condemned the US for conducting a subcritical nuclear test, saying it went against the global call for elimination of nuclear weapons.

Reacting to the nuclear test at an underground site in Nevada by the United States, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui told reporters that it ran counter to the global call for elimination of nuclear weapons, Kyodo news reported.

Reuters

Atomic-bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki expressed anger at the United States.

Kazuo Okoshi, 72, who serves as secretary general of the Hiroshima Council of A-Bomb Sufferers Organisations, said the United States has taken contradictory action, noting that Washington had backed an antinuclear resolution at a plenary session of the UN General Assembly on Monday.

The resolution on Monday, sponsored by a group of countries led by Japan, called for the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

Okoshi also said the US subcritical nuclear test could encourage Japanese politicians who are discussing Japan's right to exercise collective self-defense and renaming the country's Self-Defense Forces as national defense forces.

Hisao Kato, 83, who was exposed to radiation in Hiroshima at the age of 16, said he feels anger, noting that the United States goes against the global trend for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

"Many people in the world have expectations for President Obama over the elimination of nuclear arms, but now I think having such expectations might be wrong," he said.

Koichi Kawano, 72, who heads a council of the Nagasaki Peace Action Centre, said he had hoped President Barack Obama would strive for a nuclear-free world in his second four-year term.

Kawano urged the Japanese government to file a tough protest with Washington over the subcritical nuclear test.

PTI