Peace activists visit Chch

Press, 5 August 1985, Page 5

Peace activists visit Chch

Four Japanese peace activists arrived in Christchurch yesterday to study peace groups in New Zealand. They were part of a group of 14 Japanese who will visit various New Zealand centres during the week. .Ms Yaeko Ando said that she decided to come to New Zealand after being visited by Mr Larry Ross, a Christchurch peace campaigner. She had learnt from him

that Christchurch was the first New Zealand city to declare itself a nuclear-free zone and that the New Zealand peace movement was very active. While in Christchurch Ms Ando and other group members will take part in several of the Peace Week activities being held to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ms Ando said she hoped

to find out about the peace movement “at the grassroots level.” She will also visit Dunedin and Timaru before returning to Japan on August 10. Ms Ando is a newscaster with Radio Nippon and chairs an anti-nuclear group. The others visiting Christchurch are Ms Yoshiko Muroi, a day nurse and a member of a citizens group opposed to nuclear warships; Mr Takayoshi

Isahaya, a journalist and a member of the anti-nuclear movement; and Mr Masakazu Komatsu, a civil engineer and a member of the executive of the Kanagawa Prefectural Government Workers’ Union. Ms Ando said that Kawasaki, the city where she lives, was declared nuclear-free last year. It was one of several hundred such towns and cities, but only 20 per cent of Japan had been declared nuclearfree.