NEWS RELEASE

The Canada-Japan Inter-Parliamentary Group Encourages Canadian Municipalities to Join Mayors for Peace on the 75th Anniversary of the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The co-chairs of the Canada-Japan Inter-Parliamentary Group, the honourable Jim Munson, Senator and Mr. Terry Sheehan, M.P., urge the mayors of all Canadian municipalities who have not already done so to join the Mayors for Peace, a non-partisan international network of municipalities who support the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Earlier this year, in February, the co-chairs visited the site of the August 6, 1945 atomic bombing in Hiroshima and reflected on the importance of peace and nuclear disarmament.

“There are two contrasting images from Hiroshima that will stay with me forever,” said Senator Munson. “The one is of a group of children in uniform who passed us on their way to school, the other is of all the children depicted in the Peace Memorial Museum who never had the opportunity to grow up and become adults. It is important to remember the horrors of what happened in Hiroshima and to use that knowledge to bring hope to future generations by ensuring this tragedy will never be repeated.”

During their time in Hiroshima, the co-chairs met with the Mayor of Hiroshima, Mr. MATSUI Kazumi, and discussed their shared desire to promote the abolition of nuclear weapons via the Mayors for Peace network. Mr. Sheehan noted, “This is a message I have been promoting since I was on the city council for Sault Ste. Marie and voted on a resolution to instruct the Mayor to join Mayors for Peace. Of the 7,921 member cities, only 109 are Canadian. I sincerely hope that we will see this number grow in 2020.”

The co-chairs also met with the Deputy Director of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Mr. KATO Shuichi, who shared with them the history of Hiroshima, the destruction caused by the dropping of the atomic bomb and the stories of those who survived. In the company of Mr. KATO Shuichi, the co-chairs laid a wreath at the cenotaph dedicated to the victims of the atomic bomb in the name of the Canada-Japan Inter-Parliamentary Group.

Three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, a second atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.

The thoughts of the co-Chairs are with the Japanese people. Never again should a nation have to face the horrors of an atomic bomb.  

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For more information:

Jessica Kulka
Association Secretary
Canada-Japan Inter-Parliamentary Group
CAJP@parl.gc.ca
613-996-7938