The mayors of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which suffered catastrophic nuclear attacks during the Second World War, are analyzing the possibility of organizing the Olympic Games to take place in 2020. Representatives from the two cities studied this possibility during a meeting of the antinuclear organization “Mayors for Peace” which took place in August. More than three thousand cities are members of this group; its objective is to achieve a world without atomic weapons exactly by 2020.
“The Games started as a celebration of peace in the first place. In this regard, our candidacy will be appropriate”, noted Hiroshima’s mayor.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will study the possibility of sharing a candidacy, which would take place a short time after Tokyo lost its bid in Copenhagen for the 2016 Games, where the Brazilian city Río de Janeiro was finally selected. The IOC will announce the site of the 2020 Olympic Games in 2013.
300 kilometers separate Nagasaki from Hiroshima, which on August 6, 1945 became the first city to be the victim of an atomic attack. Nagasaki was bombed three days later.
The bombs killed around 140 thousand people in Hiroshima and about 80 thousand in Nagasaki, in an event that ended by deciding the surrender of Japan to the Allies.
(Source: Télam)
*(Translation provided by Iuslingua LLC)*
