HIROSHIMA, May 19 (NNN-NHK) – Japanese and U.S. top leaders, yesterday met in Hiroshima, prior to the larger gathering of Group of Seven (G7) nations, overshadowed by protests.
Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, who holds the G7’s rotating presidency and is hosting the three-day G7 summit which starts today, held talks with U.S. President, Joe Biden, last night.
Hiroshima, devastated by U.S. atomic bombings in 1945, has become the scene of intense demonstrations, decrying the bloc days before the summit, while police officers from all over the nation are seen patrolling the streets.
Nearly a hundred protesters gathered from Wednesday to yesterday, in front of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, also known as Atomic Bomb Dome, at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, which will be shuttered till next Monday, due to the G7 leaders’ visit.
Pulling up banners and signs such as “Crush the G7 Summit” and “No War-themed Conference,” protesters shouted slogans such as, “No Japan-U.S. leaders talk” and “Withdraw U.S. military bases in Japan.”
The protesters, including university students and family members of Atomic bombing victims, rallied along one of the main streets in Hiroshima, crowded by police over 10 times the number of protesters.
The Japan-U.S. leaders’ talk yesterday, will eventually lead to upgrades of the military alliance between the two countries, said Ryo Miyahara, head of a Hiroshima citizens’ group, and one of the protests’ organisers, citing the Japanese government’s aggressive announcements of counterattack abilities, in striking enemy bases and doubling its defence spending.
“Today’s talks will definitely ignore the ideas of ordinary people,” said Akamine Chiaki, a college student from Okinawa at yesterday’s rally.
His words were echoed by another protester on-site, a 23-year-old French student named Fred, who now studies Japanese in Osaka, who said, there is nothing to be expected from the G7. “The G7 summit has nothing to do with the interests of humanity,” he said, adding that, it is simply a game for the rich bloc.
