This year Hiroshima and Nagasaki hold their peace memorial services to mark the 65th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of them as the world feels the "global momentum toward a nuclear weapons-free world," as U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon observes. It is important that every nation and citizens the world over do their best to accelerate this momentum so that people can live free from the fear of nuclear weapons.
U.S. President Barack Obama's April 2009 speech in Prague, in which he made clear the U.S. commitment "to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," has clearly contributed to building this momentum. In his speech, he also said that "as a nuclear power, as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act" toward building a world without nuclear weapons.
In September 2009, the United Nations Security Council, attended by the five permanent UNSC member states, which are nuclear-weapons states — the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China — and the nonpermanent member states, including Japan, adopted a resolution to "seek a safer world for all and create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons."