Takashi Koizumi: Bulgarian Rose Becoming Increasingly Popular in Japan

Novinite has asked Japan's Ambassador to Bulgaria Takashi Koizumi to comment on international nuclear affairs and also on bilateral relations, in a month when the world marked the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

Mr Koizumi's first diplomatic appointment was to the Japanese Embassy in Bulgaria, where he was Third Secretary for Cultural, Political and Economic Affairs from 1979 to 1982, and that was followed by a term as Second Secretary at the same embassy in 1988-1991.

Apart from having obtained a degree from a Tokyo university, he graduated in 1978 from the Sofia University where he studied Literature - and is quite fluent in Bulgarian.

Your Excellency, given recent international developments, for example Russia's plans to boost its nuclear forces and the time it took for Iran and the 5 + 1 group to strike a deal, do you think the world has actually learned any lessons from the dreadful events of August 1945?

We could say that the world has not learned yet its lesson after the tragedy in August 1945. On the contrary, we could say there are still countries wishing to possess nuclear weapons because they know about the horrors of nuclear weapons.

Japan and the Japanese are the only country and people who have experienced the atomic bombings and know very well how cruel and inhumane nuclear weapons are. They caused the death of 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 90,000 in Nagasaki. Heat rays of the atomic bomb which killed hundreds of people reached 40000 C. The effects of radiation have been severe. Subsequently, approximately 290 000 people died of cancer and other diseases after effect by the radiation. Nowadays, 70 years later, over 190 000 people are still...