A Dutch consul to Japan was puzzled to be asked by Nagasaki reporters to comment on a Dutch defense firm's event promoting the production of military equipment in the second city to be the target of an atomic bomb.
Looking at the huge cranes of a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. shipyard in Nagasaki Bay, Consul General Jan de Vries, of the Dutch Consulate General in Kobe, said he did not expect a negative response from the people of Nagasaki, where naval vessels have long been produced.
The press conference, which took place aboard a Dutch warship visiting Nagasaki to commemorate the 400th anniversary of ties between the Netherlands and Japan, was held after some Nagasaki locals, including supporters of atomic bomb victims, complained about the April 19 military show aboard the vessel.
"He found nothing awkward about mounting such an event in Nagasaki," said Daisaburo Shingo, a 56-year-old MHI worker and union leader, in exasperation. "That's the reality of people's ideas about this city."