Hiroshima and Nagasaki to consider joint 2020 Olympic Games bid
On Sunday, the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the world’s two victim cities of atomic bombings in the history of warfare, revealed they will set up a joint committee to assess the possibility of teaming up for a bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games.
The Japanese cities, located 360 kilometers apart, say they want to give momentum to the movement to abolish nuclear weapons.
Hiroshima mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said: “We’re aiming for the abolition of nuclear weapons in 2020. If we are engaged in Olympic bidding activities in parallel, it is expected to produce a synergetic effect. The Olympics started as a festival of peace in the first place. In this sense, too, our bid will be appropriate.”
Nagasaki mayor Tomihisa Taue added: “It is not something that should be left solely to President Obama or talks between governments. The Olympics symbolize the abolition of nuclear arms and world peace, and we want to work to realize our plan to host the Games. Each one of us has a role to play in this and hosting the Olympics could be one of the roles for the cities that suffered nuclear attacks. We will look into the possibility of a bid.”
Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba insisted that the distance between the cities would prove not to be an obstacle in any bid.
“It takes only 30 minutes or so to go from one city to the other by plane,” he said. “They might be far apart geographically but in terms of traveling time, they’re not that far away.”
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