HIROSHIMA — At Friday's ceremony to mark the 65th anniversary of Hiroshima's atomic bombing, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the city's mayor, Tadatoshi Akiba, urged Japan to do its bit to realize a nuclear weapons-free world.
Suggestions ranged from hosting a regional meeting in Japan to push for this goal to recording the stories of the hibakusha so audiences worldwide can be educated about the horrors of atomic weapons.
But amid the warnings of the dangers of the weapons and calls to prevent further nuclear proliferation internationally, little was heard about proliferation risks associated with Japan's support for exporting its nuclear power technology to nations that have not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or its pursuit of a plutonium program at the Monju fast-breeder, and construction of the Rokkasho nuclear fuel reprocessing plant.