A student group in Nagasaki Prefecture announced that it has collected 17,526 signatures from high school students calling for world peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons, exceeding its target of 10,000 signatures. The group said it has collected a further 9,785 signatures from nonstudents for the appeal, which is to be submitted to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Three Nagasaki high school girls are expected to deliver the signatures to the European headquarters of the U.N. in Geneva in late August.
Sachiko Tsutsumi, one of the envoys, said, "I will strive to convey the messages for peace from high school students of a city hit by an A-bomb."