Nobel Laureate Kenzaburo Oe Talks Hiroshima & Future of Japan

At Democracy Now, Japanese Nobel Laureate Kenzaburo Oe talked with Amy Goodman on the 70th anniversary of America dropping the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Author of A Personal Matter, The Silent Cry, A Quiet Life, Hiroshima Notes and A Healing Family; and winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature, Oe remarked that he is most fearful that Article 9 of the Japanese constitution--which outlawed war as a tactic during international conflict--is in danger, as Japan becomes more and more involved with American war matters.

Today, as the sun came up in Hiroshima, tens of thousands began to gather in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park to commemorate the world’s first nuclear attack. We are joined by the acclaimed Japanese novelist and winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature, Kenzaburo Oe, whose books address political and social issues, including nuclear weapons and nuclear power. "If Mr. Obama were to come to the memorial ceremonies in Hiroshima or Nagasaki, for example, what he could do is come together with the hibakusha, the survivors, and share that moment of silence, and also express considering the issue of nuclear weapons from the perspective of all humanity and how important nuclear abolition is from that perspective—I think, would be the most important thing, and the most important thing that any politician or representative could do at this time," says Oe, who has also spoken out in defense of Japan’s pacifist constitution, which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pushed to amend in order to allow the country to send troops into conflict for the first time since World War II.

Watch it all below, and read the transcript at Democracy Now.