Posted on 10/11/2009 9:12:32 AM PDT by traumer
TOKYO – Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the victims of the only atomic bombings in history, are teaming up to try to bring the Olympics to Japan in 2020, the cities' mayors said Sunday.
Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba and Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue told a press conference they will establish a joint committee to work on a proposal based on world peace.
Both men are founding members of the Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign, which advocates for a global ban on nuclear arms. In a speech last month in Mexico City, Akiba said he firmly believed the world could abolish nuclear weapons by 2020 and suggested holding the Olympics that year in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to celebrate.
The Olympics announcement comes a little more than a week after Tokyo lost its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, which will be in Rio de Janeiro.
Tokyo organizers have not said whether they plan to try again. Only one city per country is allowed to submit a bid.
Other cities that have expressed interest in the 2020 Olympics include Istanbul, Budapest and Delhi. A host city is expected to be named in 2013.
Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara made headlines last week when he blamed his city's failure on behind-the-scenes deals, saying Japanese sports officials must become more adept in maneuvering the inner workings of the International Olympic Committee. Officials from Rio's bid described Ishihara's comments as "inappropriate."
Tokyo spent 15 billion yen ($166 million) promoting itself for the games.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Great, if they win we’ll never hear the end of how evil it was for us to drop the bombs.
...or they’ll promote it as ‘have a blast at the Olympics’.
By the way - Oprah looks like Hell....
I think it WAS evil to drop the bombs but don’t think the Olympics should go to Japan, or the U.S., or whatever.. Let’s put it in Greece next time and keep it there for good.
Victims? I think successful applicant is a better description.
Wouldn’t we have to wait 10,000 years because of the nuclear fallout. Isn’t this area uninhabitable ?
The way it’s going there will be several Hiroshimas in the Middle east before 2020.
My son, while in the navy, visited either Hiroshima or Nagasaki. He said it doesn’t look like anything happened there, and it is now a very pretty park.
That park took the place of what used to be one of the centers of the Japanese military industry, from what I understand.
From wikipedia
The population around 1910 was 143,000.[4] Before World War II, Hiroshima’s population had grown to 360,000, and peaked at 419,182 in 1942.[22] Following the atomic bombing in 1945, the population dropped to 137,197.[22] By 1955, the city’s population had returned to pre-war levels.[23]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima
Translation: "accurate".
Obama lost out to people who are even better at Machiavellian power politics than he is. ;)
Will the city of Qom (Iran) apply too?
The pre planning for the invasion of Japan estimated 20,000 US casualties.
Truman's decision to drop the two atomic weapons was largely based on this information.
A necessary evil at best.
Since there were more casualties than that in some of the invasions of outlying Japanese Islands, I don't think this can be correct.
Bullseye! That is EXACTLY what will happen.
Good idea in principle, but Im not sure Greece the country would be able to afford to do it every four years.
I love revisionist history: So Hiroshima and Nagasaki are “victims” now, are they? There was this little incident called “Pearl Harbor, along with the Rape of Nanking, the Philippines, Wake Island, etc., etc. The atomic bombs probably saved my late father’s life, along with a million other Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, Coast Guardsmen and Airmen. I will not let these lies stand!
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