Aug. 6 (UPI) — Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga apologized after skipping about a page of his speech during a ceremony marking the 76th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing on Friday.
Suga, 72, skipped a significant portion of his prepared statement after saying Japan “adheres to the three non-nuclear principles and has no nuclear weapons,” the Mainichi Shimbun reported.
Suga may have unintentionally omitted paragraphs that said Japan was the only country to have suffered atomic bombings and that his country seeks to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
The prime minister later apologized at a press conference, according to Kyodo News.
Japan is not a signatory of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons because it is under the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
But Suga said Friday that Japan could serve as a bridge between countries on nuclear disarmament. Tokyo also is to work with atomic bomb survivors to best cope with the aftermath of radiation exposure, the prime minister said.
Politicians in Japan are divided on the issue of ratifying the United Natons treaty.
Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui has said Tokyo should sign the accord immediately.
“Nuclear weapons are the ultimate human violence. If civil society decides to live without them, the door to a nuclear-weapon-free world will open wide,” Matsui said, according to Kyodo.
Mika Tanaka, 45, a descendant of an atomic bomb survivor, said that the citizens of Hiroshima must “link future generations to the unfiltered voices” of victims.
As Japanese citizens observed the Hiroshima anniversary, athletes at the Tokyo Olympics have not been asked to observe the day after International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach visited Hiroshima on July 16, the report said.
On Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay dropped a uranium bomb codenamed “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people.