Nuclear weapons

On Saturday thousands of people will gather at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima to commemorate the 66th anniversary of the atomic bombing. Although most of the city was rebuilt after the war, this section was set aside as a reminder of the effects of the 1945 atomic bomb, "Little Boy." The bombing of Hiroshima, and of Nagasaki a few days later, steered the way for a new nuclear age.

Japan, the only country to have suffered atomic bombings, has been facing another nuclear crisis since a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 triggered a power failure leading to meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

During Saturday's commemoration ceremony, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui is expected to cite citizens' movements calling for withdrawal from nuclear power generation in the wake of the Fukushima crisis and urge the government to review its energy policy "so as to earn public support and trust," various media reported. He will stop short, however, of explicitly opposing nuclear energy. The move follows an announcement by Tomihisa Taue, Mayor of Nagasaki City, who has said he will urge the government to promote renewable energy sources in a policy shift in his upcoming speech at the August 9 ceremony.

Dangers of nuclear radiation

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has signalled that he would prefer the country to consider weaning itself from its dependence on atomic energy. Kan hinted at the 1945 atomic bombings when he stated that the current nuclear crisis was the worst for Japan "since the Second World War."

At most of these commemorations, peace activists and anti-nuclear forces rally against the use of nuclear weapons. With the on-going nuclear disaster at Fukushima, this year's commemoration will carry a somewhat altered message, as many Japanese people continue to experience the dangers of nuclear radiation.

Eric Due from the Japan Times told Deutsche Welle that some preliminary events have taken place where at least one of the citizen groups made up of hiba kusha (surviving victims) of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki met with other people connected with atomic bombings and focused their attention on the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

Change in policy

"Active protests against nuclear energy are not getting a lot of play but various people in political power are intimating changes in terms of policy which had been for many years promoting nuclear power in part," says Due.

Japan was the spearhead for the Kyoto protocol and the anti-global warming movement, advocating nuclear power as a clean source of energy. But because of the Fukushima crisis, Tokyo is now rethinking that notion. Due says that while politicians in power are making pronouncements more or less leaning away from nuclear power, such changes "don’t happen in a heartbeat."

Japan recently unveiled a plan for a more independent nuclear safety regulator by next April in an effort to restore faith. The national nuclear watchdog will be separated from the trade ministry, a proponent of nuclear energy, after the latter faced criticism over its close connection with the nuclear energy industry. "They’re trying to organize the watchdog body so that at least in its general scheme it won’t be populated by industry ministry nuclear power advocates," says Due.

Author: Shivani Mathur

Editor: Sarah Berning