Hiroshima mayor calls for nuke-free world

HIROSHIMA, Japan, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- The Hiroshima, Japan, mayor called for a nuclear weapons-free world and aid for nuclear attack survivors on the 67th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bomb attack.

Reading the Peace Declaration, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui pledged to tell the world the survivors' story and "do everything in our power to achieve the genuine peace of a world without nuclear weapons," Kyodo reported.

"The government of Japan will continue to highlight the importance of a world without nuclear weapons," said Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, adding that the government will support efforts to ensure that the memory of Japan's atomic bomb experience is kept alive nationally and internationally.

The ceremony was at Peace Memorial Park.

Matsui called on the Japanese government to develop a policy "that guards the safety and security of the people," Mainichi Shimbun reported. He also called on the government to provide additional relief measures for "hibakusha," or atomic bomb survivors.

Witnesses said about 50,000 people were at the park to honor the victims of the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing of the citizens. The United States, Britain and France sent representatives to the midsummer ceremony.

Mayor Tamotsu Baba of Namie, a city in the Fukushima prefecture, attended the ceremony for the first time as the leader of a Fukushima municipality struck by nuclear crisis. Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant on March 11, 2011, was hit by an earthquake and tsunami and had a meltdown in three of its six reactors when flooding shut down power generators.