Peace Declaration is an annual speech delivered by the Mayor of Hiroshima on August 6, the day that city was destroyed by an atom bomb delivered by a US B-29. That speech has been delivered regularly since 1947, except for 1950, when the US occupation forces prohibited Mayor Shinzo Hamai to deliver the speech. The Peace Declaration at first touched upon issues such as nuclear disarmament, but since the 1980s also issues such as armed conflicts around the world in general.
A similar annual speech is also delivered by the Mayor of Nagasaki since 1948.
Some of the memorial ceremonies were marked by statements by additional leaders than just the mayor of Hiroshima.
At the 1st ceremony in 1947, a message was read by General McArthur. [1]
The 2nd ceremony in 1948 was attended by the Australian Commander of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force Gen. Horace Robertson. [2]
The 1971 ceremony was the first attended by a Japanese prime minister Eisaku Satō.
The 1977 ceremony was the first attended by a UN official. UN General Assembly president Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe was among the speakers. [3]
The 2010 ceremony was the first attended by the US Ambassador to Japan.
Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. As of June 1, 2019, the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has been the city's mayor since April 2011. The Hiroshima metropolitan area is the second largest urban area in the Chugoku Region of Japan, following the Okayama metropolitan area.
The Potsdam Declaration, or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, was a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman, United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chairman of China Chiang Kai-shek issued the document, which outlined the terms of surrender for the Empire of Japan, as agreed upon at the Potsdam Conference. The ultimatum stated that, if Japan did not surrender, it would face "prompt and utter destruction."
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial, originally the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, and now commonly called the Genbaku Dome, Atomic Bomb Dome or A-Bomb Dome, is part of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
Shinzo Hamai was the first popularly elected Mayor of Hiroshima. He created Hiroshima's image as a city of peace.
Takeshi Araki was the mayor of Hiroshima from 1975 to 1991.
World War II officially ended in Asia on September 2, 1945, with the surrender of Japan on the USS Missouri. Before that, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, and the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, causing Emperor Hirohito to announce the acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration on August 15, 1945, which would eventually lead to the surrender ceremony on September 2.
The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, ending the war. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was incapable of conducting major operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent. Together with the United Kingdom and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration on 26 July 1945—the alternative being "prompt and utter destruction". While publicly stating their intent to fight on to the bitter end, Japan's leaders were privately making entreaties to the publicly neutral Soviet Union to mediate peace on terms more favorable to the Japanese. While maintaining a sufficient level of diplomatic engagement with the Japanese to give them the impression they might be willing to mediate, the Soviets were covertly preparing to attack Japanese forces in Manchuria and Korea in fulfillment of promises they had secretly made to the US and the UK at the Tehran and Yalta Conferences.
Japan's non-nuclear weapons policy is a policy popularly articulated as the Three Non-Nuclear Principles of non-possession, non-production, and non-introduction of nuclear weapons imposed by Douglas MacArthur during the Allied occupation of Japan following the Second World War.
Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State was an unsuccessful case brought before the District Court of Tokyo by a group of five survivors of the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who claimed the action was illegal under the laws of war and demanded reparations from the Japanese government on the ground that it waived the right for reparations from the U.S. government under the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony is an annual Japanese vigil.
Substantial debate exists over the ethical, legal, and military aspects of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 August and 9 August 1945 respectively at the close of World War II (1939–45).
Tadao Watanabe was a Japanese politician and Mayor of Hiroshima from 1955-1959.
Rose Eilene Gottemoeller is an American diplomat who served as Deputy Secretary General of NATO from October 2016 to October 2019 under Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Before then she was the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security at the U.S. State Department.
Setsuo Yamada was the Mayor of Hiroshima from 1967 until his death.
Shichirō Kihara was mayor of Hiroshima from October 22, 1945 to March 22, 1947 and was elected as member of the Hiroshima Prefectural Assembly in 1911.
Mayor of Hiroshima 広島市長 is the head of the local government of Hiroshima City. Until 1871, Hiroshima was ruled by a feudal prince from the Asano clan, who ruled from Hiroshima Castle. On April 1, 1889, all cities in Japan were granted a municipality. At this point, all mayors in Japan were appointed by the Ministry of Interior in Tokyo. The first mayor of Hiroshima was Akira Miki, who remained in office for three months.
Wakami Fujita was mayor of Hiroshima from 1939 to 1943.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Hiroshima, Japan.
Yoshio Shigezono was a Japanese lyricist and music teacher. He is known principally for writing the words for the Hiroshima Peace Song.
Minoru Yamamoto was a Japanese composer. He is known principally for writing the tune for the Hiroshima Peace Song.