Nagasaki gives up bid to host Olympics, Hiroshima to go it alone+

NAGASAKI, Jan. 15 Kyodo -
Nagasaki has given up its bid to co-host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games with
Hiroshima, Mayor Tomihisa Taue said Friday, leaving Hiroshima to bid alone for
an event that the two atom-bombed cities see as symbolizing their hope for a
nuclear-free world.

With the Olympic Charter stipulating that only one city can host the Olympics,
Nagasaki has decided that pushing the co-hosting plan further would not be
advantageous, Taue said at a meeting of local assembly members.
''We would like to offer full cooperation if Hiroshima declares its bid to hold
the event alone,'' Taue said, adding that he conveyed his city's decision to
withdraw from the joint bid to Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba on Thursday over
the phone.
In a statement issued after the announcement, Akiba said, ''We would like to
take the decision aimed at opening the way for future developments in a
positive way.''
''We hope to continue to jointly work for the dream of hosting the 2020
Olympics,'' he said.
The announcement came after Taue and Akiba were told by International Olympic
Committee Vice President Chiharu Igaya earlier this week that it would be
difficult for the cities to jointly host the Olympics, even with the concession
that they have floated to try to comply with the Olympic Charter.
The two cities, both atom-bombed at the end of World War II, announced in
October last year, after the Tokyo metropolitan government's bid to host the
2016 Olympics was dashed, that they wanted to co-host the 2020 Games to mark
their goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons by 2020.
But the Japanese Olympic Committee turned down their bid last month, saying it
is not in a position to go against the Olympic Charter, while suggesting that
it would have a chance for success if either city makes a bid.
The two cities then sought to ''effectively'' co-host the Games by just having
Hiroshima apply to be the host city, while unofficially calling the event the
''Hiroshima-Nagasaki Olympics.'' But the idea failed to win over IOC's Igaya
when the mayors visited him Tuesday in Tokyo.
Taue said Friday it would be difficult for Nagasaki alone to be the host city
but he still sees hosting some of the games as ''one possibility.''
On the development, JOC President Tsunekazu Takeda said the Japanese committee
is willing to ''substantially consider'' whether to support Hiroshima's bid if
it formally files to host the event alone, saying that such a move would
''produce a possibility.''
Hiroshima Gov. Hidehiko Yuzaki also said a bid by the prefectural capital alone
''must have some positive effects'' in trying to attain the goal, while
regretting Nagasaki's withdrawal as he liked the idea ''of the two atom-bombed
cities co-hosting the event.''
Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said, ''The idea of an 'Olympics for peace'
projected by Hiroshima and Nagasaki is persuasive.''
Referring to Tokyo's own plans to bid for the 2020 games, Ishihara said, ''We
will seek cooperation from Nagasaki City, such as asking it to partly host the
event even if the metropolitan government formally files for candidacy.''
Survivors of the 1945 bombings, or hibakushas, mostly accepted the development.
''The Olympics is a festive event, after all. It did not fit our down-to-earth
efforts to abolish nuclear weapons,'' Former Nagasaki University President
Hideo Tsuchiyama said.
''It was good that the withdrawal was decided without a long and dull
consideration after hearing the opinion of the IOC,'' said Tsuchiyama, who now
heads the organizing committee to hold a rally for nuclear abolition in
Nagasaki in February.
But Nobuto Hirano, 63, a second-generation hibakusha in Nagasaki who supports
peace campaigns by high school students, criticized the move, saying, ''It left
us with doubts about Mayor Taue's idea about peace movements and how serious he
was about realizing (the Olympics).''
In Hiroshima, Keiji Nakazawa, 70, who depicted a boy's experience after the
Aug. 6 bombing on Hiroshima in an autobiographical comic book series ''Hadashi
no Gen'' (Barefoot Gen), said, ''It thought it would be impossible to hold the
event in two cities because just the traveling would cause a fuss.''
==Kyodo
2010-01-15 23:02:23