Japanese Premier in Hiroshima for nuclear U-turn

JAPANESE Prime Minister Naoto Kan yesterday took his campaign against nuclear energy in Japan to Hiroshima where, 66 years ago, the world's first atomic bomb attack took place.

It marks a change of tack in a country which until now has avoided linking its fast growing, and now discredited, nuclear power industry to its trauma as the only country to have suffered an atom bomb strike.

Kan, speaking at an anniversary ceremony for victims of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, repeated that the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years at Fukushima after a March earthquake, convinced him Japan should end its dependence on nuclear power.

The damage from the quake and subsequent tsunami at the nuclear plant, which the authorities are still trying to bring under control, has led to widespread calls for an end to reliance on nuclear power in the quake-prone country.

"I will deeply reflect on nuclear power's 'myth of safety', investigate thoroughly the causes of the accident and take fundamental measures to secure safety, as well as reduce the dependence on nuclear power plants and aim for a society that does not depend on them," Kan said.

Kazumi Matsui, Hiroshima's mayor and the son of an atomic bomb survivor, also pressed Tokyo to act after the Fukushima crisis traumatised the public.

"The Japanese government should sincerely accept this reality and review its energy policy quickly," he said.

It was the first time in decades that any Hiroshima mayor had questioned Japan's policy of developing nuclear energy during the annual ceremony, in which tens of thousands observed a minute of silence as the peace bell tolled.

Matsui said it was heartbreaking to see the devastation on the north-east coast after the quake on 11 March, and how it resembled what was left of Hiroshima after the bombing.

A United States warplane dropped the atomic bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy", on the city on 6 August, 1945, in the closing days of the Second World War. The death toll by the end of the year was estimated at about 140,000 out of 350,000 living there at the time.

The US dropped a second atomic bomb on the southern city of Nagasaki on 9 August. Japan surrendered six days later.

Japan has a self-imposed ban on nuclear arms, part of its pacifist post-war constitution.

But even anti-nuclear groups have been careful not to draw parallels between what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and dangers posed by the use of nuclear reactors.

Prior to the Fukushima crisis, nuclear power accounted for nearly a third of Japan's energy supply. Hiroshima has, for decades, relied on Shimane nuclear power plant for some of its electricity. But since the March earthquake triggered radiation leaks at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima plant, public sentiment has shifted.