Hiroshima, Nagasaki mayors back Obama's nuclear-free commitment

NEW YORK — The mayors of Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki supported U.S. President Barack Obama's recent commitment to eliminate nuclear weapons in their respective speeches Tuesday to a session of the preparatory committee of the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.

In his speech at the U.N. headquarters, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba coined a new term by calling the growing number of nuclear abolitionists around the world as the "Obamajority."

"President Obama knows that we are the majority standing on a solid moral foundation," said Akiba, who spoke on behalf of Mayors for Peace, a nongovernmental organization consisting about 3,000 cities around the world that supports the total abolition of nuclear weapons.