Peace Declaration (1976)

The day has come again, to commemorate the Atomic Bomb Memorial Day.

On this day, at this very time, Hiroshima was annihilated in one instant, and precious lives of countless numbers of people were snatched away. Those who have survived the holocaust find themselves tormented with the physical pain and mental anguish caused by radioactive poisoning. Even today thirty-one years after the event, we view with unbearable repentance the passing away of these survivors taking leave of their disease-ridden existence.

We, the citizens of Hiroshima, ever mindful of this cruel experience, clearly foresee the extinction of mankind and an end to civilization should the world drift into a nuclear war. Therefore we have vowed to set aside our griefs and grudges and continuously pleaded before the peoples of the world to abolish weapons and renounce war so that we may "never again repeat the tragedy of Hiroshima."

Nevertheless, the nuclear powers of the world led by the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics have trampled upon the spirit of Hiroshima. Under pretexts of self-defence and world security, these countries have stockpiled huge quantities of nuclear weapons capable of obliterating all mankind. Moreover they have permitted to spread these weapons throughout the world thus acutely increasing the danger of a thermonuclear war. We look with great apprehension at the intervention of the nuclear powers in local wars fearing that they might lead to an outbreak of a world-wide nuclear conflict. Turning our attention to the world-wide problems of ecology, nutrition, population and resource depletion, we find further cause for anxiety at these other threats to world peace.

Mankind now stands at the crossroads of survival or extinction. We, as one world, must terminate conflicts which separate nation from nation and people from people. We must rid ourselves of nuclear weapons forever. The peoples of the world must come to realize that all men are members of a common human community. We must quicken our pace towards an everlasting world peace founded upon the concepts of human dignity and interdependence.

In the near future, the Mayor of Hiroshima will accompany the Mayor of Nagasaki to the United Nations to give testimony as living witnesses to the grim realities of the atomic bomb experience. They will propose before all the nations of the world that all the people of the world are potential survivors. The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are further resolved to request the General Assembly for an early realization of concrete measures to abolish nuclear weapons. Such measures are seen as being consistent with resolutions previously adopted by the General Assembly concerning the Prohibition of the Use of Nuclear Weapons, Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and the Banning of Nuclear Weapon Tests.

Standing in front of the A-bomb sacrificed souls today, we hereby renew our pledge for peace and solemnly declare the above to the world at large.

August 6, 1976

Takeshi Araki
Mayor
The City of Hiroshima