A former mayor of Hiroshima has launched an online petition calling for a moment of silence to be observed during the Tokyo Olympics on Aug. 6 at the time the atomic bomb was dropped on his city in 1945.
Tadatoshi Akiba, 78, launched the Change.org campaign on the day that International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach visited Hiroshima on July 16, amid opposition from some A-bomb survivors who called his trip politically motivated.
"He should have no objections to how important it is to spread the message of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the world," Akiba said, noting that Bach came to Hiroshima in spite of the coronavirus pandemic and opposition from many people.