Japan is arranging a visit by the Group of Seven leaders' partners to a museum dedicated to documenting the 1945 U.S. nuclear attack on Hiroshima, and a meeting with atomic bomb survivors on the sidelines of the G-7 summit starting next week in the city, government sources said Tuesday.
A similar program is also being arranged for the G-7 leaders, with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hoping to use the summit, to be held in his home constituency of Hiroshima in western Japan, to add fresh impetus to nuclear disarmament efforts toward achieving his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons.
The sources believe that the visits to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum are important for creating momentum toward nuclear disarmament, as the leaders' decision-making could be influenced by their partners' views.
The museum displays belongings of the atomic bomb victims, photos and other materials to show the devastation of the world's first nuclear attack. The atomic bomb that was dropped on Aug. 6, 1945, killed an estimated 140,000 people by the end of that year.
Kishida's wife Yuko, a native of Hiroshima Prefecture, will guide her counterparts, hoping to demonstrate their "desire for peace" to the international community, according to the sources.
It is customary for a G-7 host nation to prepare a program for the leaders' partners.
A visit to the Hiroshima museum was not included in an earlier version of the itinerary for the leaders' partners on the sidelines of the three-day summit from May 19.
On the first day, the spouses will experience a traditional tea ceremony and take part in a symposium to discuss peace issues with young people, according to the Foreign Ministry.
They will also take part in a makeup event with traditional Kumano brushes produced in Hiroshima Prefecture.
On the following day, the leaders' partners will visit Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima Island that has a torii gate built in the Seto Inland Sea which appears to float during high tide.
Regarded as one of Japan's three most scenic places, Itsukushima Shrine was registered by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a World Cultural Heritage site in 1996.
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