Mayor of Hiroshima Blasts U.S., Fails to Mention Pearl Harbor

A memorial ceremony is held every year in Hiroshima to remember those killed in the nuclear bombing there in 1945. This year, in a sickening display of hypocrisy, the Mayor of Hiroshima used the occasion to blast the United States, which he accused of “worship[ping] nuclear weapons as God.”
In addition to attacking the war in Iraq as “unjust,” Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba claimed that “The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the central international agreement guiding the elimination of nuclear weapons, is on the verge of collapse. The chief cause is US nuclear policy that, by openly declaring the possibility of a pre-emptive nuclear first strike and calling for resumed research into mini-nukes and other so-called ‘useable nuclear weapons,’ appears to worship nuclear weapons as God.”
This is simply ridiculous. Nuclear proliferation is occurring because a number of countries, mostly run by tyrants, believe (correctly) that such weapons will make them more powerful. Such proliferation has been going on for many years–Iraq, for example, would have had nuclear weapons by the early to mid 1980’s if Israel had not bombed its nuclear facility–and it is absurd to blame this on the U.S. On the contrary, who besides the U.S. is now making any serious effort to stop countries like Iraq, Iran and North Korea from obtaining nuclear capability, or to disarm them if they do?
And, of course, in reports on the mourning for Hiroshima’s victims there is no indication of any acknowledgement that the cause of the war: Japan’s unprovoked attack on the U.S. At this point, the hypocritical, self-righteous pacificm of many Japanese could not be less helpful.