Peace Declaration (1958)

Today, as we, the citizens of Hiroshima, greet the return of another Peace Day, fresh memories revive in our retrospection and countless emotions surge within our hearts.

Great was the misery brought by the atomic bombing of thirteen years ago, a tragedy unparalleled in the annals of mankind, and to this day it threatens the lives of our survivors, as they still fall prey to premature death.

In the face of such painful reality, our aspiration for peace has kept us striving for the building of the Peace City of Hiroshima, to be symbolical of man's permanent peace. Today, as we see around us the flourishing green and the streets beautifully lined up with houses and buildings, we humbly pay homage to the souls of our departed, and strengthen our faith in peace.

With the public opinion ever rising toward the banning of nuclear weapons, the unilateral resolution declaring the halting of nuclear test and the opening of the technical conference of the air inspection system now seem to throw a faint ray of hope on the future, but still it behooves us to make our words more audible to all ears for the creation of a stronger public opinion, to exert ourselves for the establishment of an international agreement on the complete outlawing of the manufacture and use of all nuclear weapons, and thereby to save humanity from the crisis of its extermination.

Thus with renewed determination, and speaking from our own experience, we, the citizens of Hiroshima, do make this appeal to the world.

August 6, 1958

Tadao Watanabe
Mayor
The City of Hiroshima