Tadatoshi Akiba
Mayor of Hiroshima
Tadatoshi Akiba was elected mayor of Hiroshima in 1999. For nine years prior that, he served in the Japanese House of Representatives as a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He has also served as president of the World Conference of Mayors for Peace Through Inter-city Solidarity. Before becoming a politician, he was a mathematician at Shudoh University. The following is excerpted from his speech marking the fifty-eighth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 2003. This year again, summer’s heat reminds us of the blazing hellfire that swept over this very spot 58 years ago….
