Japanese PM stirs angst about North Korea during Hiroshima memorial
Source: New York Times
By JONATHAN SOBLE
The New York Times
Sun., Aug. 6, 2017
TOKYO—Every year in early August, Japanese politicians and peace activists converge on Hiroshima to commemorate the day when the city was devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb. In the famous peace park, the horrors of the Second World War are vividly recounted. Speakers of all political stripes repeat Japan’s postwar mantra: “Never again.”
The familiar reaffirmations of peace were there this year, too, on the 72nd anniversary, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declaring Sunday that Japan, “as the only country to be irradiated in war,” would “firmly advance the movement toward a world without nuclear weapons.”
But there was no hiding the tensions straining Japan’s postwar pacifism, as fears over the fast-advancing nuclear program in neighbouring North Korea — and political disagreements over how to respond — rose jarringly to the surface.
At a news conference after the official memorial ceremony, a forum normally dominated by reflections on the past and appeals for a peaceful future, a reporter prodded Abe about the alarmingly here-and-now problem of the nuclear ambitions of the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
Read more: https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2017/08/06/japanese-pm-stirs-angst-about-north-korea-during-hiroshima-memorial.html
52m ago
Japanese people practising nuclear attack drills
So far this year North Korea has carried out 14 missile tests, all of them fired towards the coast of Japan.
Now for the first time in more than 70 years villagers along the North West coast of Japan are now being ordered to take part in air raid drills.
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-40829860/japanese-people-practising-nuclear-attack-drills
Video at link.
