Japan Urges China to Include Hiroshima, Nagasaki Invitations in NPT Accord

Japan is in talks with China over a proposal to include a request for world leaders to visit the bombed-out cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the next draft agreement for the UN conference reviewing the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), Japanese media reported on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The call for politicians to see with their own eyes the cities that were destroyed in 1945 by nuclear bombs dropped by the US Air Force was voiced in April by Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, according to the Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

The review conference has convened every five years since the treaty was signed in 1970 in order to assess its implementation. The event, which started in late April, is to wrap up on Friday.

The initial draft of the 2015 agreement included the invitation, which was backed by 10 other nations, but Beijing requested that it be removed.

China, which suffered huge losses in World War II at the hands of Japan's military, has opposed the proposal, accusing Tokyo of trying to present itself as a victim of war, according to the Japanese broadcaster.