Mayors for Peace Secretariat
C/O Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, 1-5 Nakajima-cho Naka-ku Hiroshima 730-0811 Japan
Phone:81-82-242-7821 Fax:81-82-242-7452

His Excellency Mr. Barack Obama
President
The United States of America


Letter of Protest

Mayors for Peace has worked long and hard to help people around the world fully share our
hibakusha’s experiences of the atomic bombing and their wish for peace. Our goal has been to
help everyone develop the strong will required to abolish nuclear weapons. Now we learn that,
despite these efforts, the U.S. has conducted two subcritical nuclear tests. While you did
release information in June about tests that took place at the Nevada test site last December
and this past February, we have only just become aware of this disappointing news.

Though these tests did not involve nuclear explosions, they can be taken as further evidence
that the U.S. intends to maintain its nuclear stockpile indefinitely. Coupled with the fact that
you revealed the testing only several months later, in the same fashion as the new type of
nuclear testing you conducted last November and March, these tests have aroused profound
suspicion regarding your intentions and have betrayed the hopes of the hibakusha and the
millions of others who seek a nuclear-weapon-free world. In particular, given the extreme
anxiety over the threat of radiation caused by the accident at the Fukushima Power Plant, this
testing of weapons is utterly unacceptable. On behalf of the 4,803 cities in 151 countries and
regions that are members of Mayors for Peace, we vehemently protest.

We urge you to comprehend fully the bitter sorrow of the survivors who witnessed the
bombing, understand their sincere wish for peace, and begin negotiating now for the earliest
possible realization of a world free from nuclear weapons.

July 20, 2011

The Conference of Mayors for Peace
Kazumi Matsui President Mayor of Hiroshima, Japan
Tomihisa Taue Vice President Mayor of Nagasaki, Japan
Donald L. Plusquellic Vice President Mayor of Akron, USA
Ivan Knez Vice President Mayor of Biograd na Moru, Croatia
Freddy Thielemans Vice President Mayor of Brussels, Belgium
Matteo Renzi Vice President Mayor of Florence, Italy
Josep Mayoral i Antigas Vice President Mayor of Granollers, Spain
Khder Kareem Vice President Mayor of Halabja, Iraq
Stephan Weil Vice President Lord Mayor of Hannover, Germany
Catherine Margate Vice President Mayor of Malakoff, France
Harry Lyons Vice President Lord Mayor of Manchester, UK
Aldrin L. San Pedro Vice President Mayor of Muntinlupa, Philippines
Sergey Sokolov Vice President Acting Mayor of Volgograd, Russia
Luc Dehaene Vice President Mayor of Ypres, Belgium
Daniel Tsakem Executive Mayor of Fongo Tongo, Cameroon
Gerald Tremblay Executive Mayor of Montreal, Canada
Marcelo Ebrard CasaubonExecutive Mayor of Mexico City, Mexico