HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said Monday he hopes U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's upcoming visit to the city on the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing helps boost the global movement toward nuclear disarmament.
Ban will be the first U.N. secretary to attend the Aug. 6 ceremony, which marks the U.S. atomic bombing of the city in 1945.
"If he could send out from Hiroshima a strong message to eradicate nuclear weapons, it would further increase movements toward global (nuclear) abolition," Akiba said at a news conference.
Ban is scheduled to visit Nagasaki, which was bombed three days after Hiroshima, before arriving in Hiroshima on Aug. 5, and will give a speech during the ceremony.
Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, is also trying to arrange a visit to a memorial site for Korean atomic bomb victims, built next to the Hiroshima Peace Site.