Epiphany at Hiroshima for deeply moved Rudd
Tim Colebatch; 10/6/08
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s emotionally searing visit to Hiroshima yesterday added authority to his pledge to eradicate nuclear weapons. It was in Hiroshima that more than 140,000 people were killed in the world’s first atomic bomb attack on August 6, 1945. Mr Rudd was clearly moved as he was shown through the museum, erected by the city of Hiroshima in memory of the victims of the blast. “It is a graphic human story of the horrendous impact of nuclear weapons,” he told reporters later. The exhibits included a child’s tricycle, half-melted in the blast, the burnt handmade blouse that a schoolgirl was wearing when the bomb struck, a galvanised iron roof shrivelled like crushed aluminium foil, and a 360-degree photo panorama showing virtually the entire city razed. In a short speech before leaving, Mr Rudd called on humanity to “make every effort” for peace, adding: “For the world at large, we should aspire to a world free of nuclear weapons.”
See: http://www.theage.com.au/national/epiphany-at-hiroshima-for-deeply-moved-rudd-20080609-2nzg.html
Rudd’s new plan to ban the bomb; Tim Colebatch; 10/6/08; http://www.theage.com.au/national/rudds-new-plan-to-ban-the-bomb-20080609-2nze.html