Hiroshima residents protest against summit

HIROSHIMA, Japan — Hundreds of Japanese citizens took to the streets in the city of Hiroshima on Saturday to protest against the upcoming G7 Summit from May 19 to 21.

Protests were also going to be held on Sunday, starting from Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, a cenotaph where an atomic bomb was dropped by the United States during World War II.

About 200 citizens carrying banners reading "No G7" and "No War" gathered in Hiroshima to protest against the summit on Saturday as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited the city to inspect the summit venues.

Shigeo Kimoto, director of the Japanese civic group Peace Depot, said that the joint military exercises among G7 members in the Pacific region and Japan's statement that "Taiwan contingency is a contingency for Japan "are "absurd and dangerous".

Japan has concealed its ugly history as a perpetrator by stressing that it is "the only country that suffered atomic bombings", historian Toshiyuki Tanaka said at Saturday's rally.

"Now Japan is politically using Hiroshima, the site of the atomic bombing, to hold the G7 Summit. It is time for people in Hiroshima to wake up," said Tanaka, also an emeritus professor at Hiroshima City University.

The protests were launched by the executive committee of citizen's group questioning the upcoming summit, whose declaration was released on Saturday.

Xinhua