Peace Declaration (1962)

Today, we observe the return of that day of sad memory.

Seventeen years ago today, Hiroshima, which was founded by the great work of our fathers through the history of four hundred years, was totally ruined in an instant, and a heavy toll of lives was taken without distinction of age or sex.

What had arisen in the mind of us who had witnessed the disaster was a limitless hatred against war and a firm commitment that we would never repeat such tragedy.

Since then, we have taken every opportunity to tell our experience to the world and appeal for the prohibition of the use of nuclear weapons and for the need of the renunciation of war.

However, the production and tests of nuclear weapons have never been ceased so far, and to the worse, their destructive capability has become greater than ever. Accordingly, the confrontation among the nations gets intensified, thus having the world thrown into an unprecedented danger.

It is high time that people must fully recognize that, in the nuclear age, no war can bring a victory to any country, and that once it happens, it means not only the end of countries concerned but also that of the world.

We eagerly hope that all the people and nation, based on the spirit of human solidarity, devote themselves with all their might to the prohibition of nuclear weapons and to the renunciation of war, by surmounting petty differences between one another and giving priority to the common cause of us.

Today, we here make this appeal to the whole world, renewing our homage to the souls of those who perished in the atomic bombing. 

August 6, 1962

Shinzo Hamai
Mayor
The City of Hiroshima