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Hiroshima, Nagasaki protest U.S. subcritical nuclear test+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, Feb. 24_(Kyodo) _ The Hiroshima and Nagasaki mayors protested Friday against a joint subcritical nuclear experiment in Nevada conducted Thursday by the United States and Britain, officials of both cities said.
Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba sent U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair a letter which says the experiment is "a clear indication that you are developing new nuclear weapons," adding, "Such behavior is intolerable."
Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito released a statement saying the experiment "may even give other countries an excuse of developing nuclear weapons. We can't help saying that is an outrage that threatens world peace and stability."
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum manager Minoru Hataguchi, 59, pushed the reset button of the clock displaying the number of days since the last nuclear experiment on the Peace Watch Tower in the museum. The number on the clock now displays 0, which was 639 as is the number of days since the last U.S. subcritical nuclear test in Nevada on May 25, 2004.
Upon pushing the reset button, Hataguchi, who was in his mother's womb in Hiroshima when the United States dropped an atomic bomb there on Aug. 6, 1945, said, "I feel like a nightmare has come back. A-bomb survivors are still struggling."
This is the ninth time the clock turned to 0 since installation of the clock in August 2001. The 639 is the greatest number so far.
In Nagasaki, about 40 people including peace-promoting group members conducted a sit-in protest in the Nagasaki Peace Park.
Matashichi Oishi, 72, who was a crew member of the Fukuryu Maru No. 5 exposed to radioactive fallout from a U.S. hydrogen bomb experiment on Bikini Atoll in March 1954, said, "Leaders of the United States and Britain should realize that nuclear experiments do not lead the world to happiness, but unhappiness."
The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations sent a protest letter to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
The United States carried out a subcritical nuclear experiment with Britain at an underground test site in Nevada on Thursday, the 22nd such test since 1997.
The test also represented the first such experiment since May 2004 and the ninth under the administration of President George W. Bush. It was the second carried out with Britain following the one in February 2002.
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