Around 1,000 people set out Monday on a three-month peace march from Tokyo to Hiroshima, calling for the abolishment of nuclear weapons and nuclear power generation, according to organizers.
Holding up a banner reading, "Let's abolish nuclear weapons," and with stickers that read "YES PEACE" on their arms, the marchers shouted slogans such as, "We don't need nuclear weapons" and "We don't need nuclear power," as they departed.
Before the start, Malaya Fabros, a 34-year-old antinuclear advocate from the Philippines, called on the marchers to join forces so that a peaceful world without nuclear weapons can be realized.
Some of the participants are planning to walk all the way from Tokyo to Hiroshima, while others will walk part of the relays toward the city that was devastated by a U.S. atomic bombing in 1945 in World War II, according to organizers.
The marchers are scheduled to reach Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Aug. 4, two days before the anniversary of the bombing.
Yasuo Shiose, 74, who was orphaned at age 7 when he lost his parents and two older brothers in the bombing of Hiroshima, said, "I will walk with the aim achieving a peaceful world free of nuclear weapons and wars."