Education
University of Tokyo.
荒木 武
University of Tokyo.
Araki was elected mayor of Hiroshima in 1975. In 1976, he protested the air show held in Texas, in which the United States Air Force held an imitation of the atomic attack on Hiroshima in the form of a mushroom cloud in the desert, and in 1977 protested to the Japanese government about the possibility of further such reenactments. As a mayor, Araki approached the United States government to work for nuclear disarmament.
On November 26, 1976, he held a meeting in Washington District of Columbia with head of Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Fred Ikle, a meeting attended also by mayor Yoshitake Morotani of Nagasaki with the purpose of promoting United States policy of nuclear disarmament.
On November 30, the two mayors met United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations William Scranton and conveyed the same message. The two mayors met United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim on December 3.
Araki later described his meeting with Waldheim as follows:
In May 1978, spoke at a special session of the United Nations General Assembly, dealing with disarmament, and was the first Mayor of Hiroshima to appear at an official United Nations session. Being a hibakusha himself, he helped found the organization Mayors for Peace in 1982.
He also concluded a number of Sister City agreements with Hannover, Germany (1983) and Chongqing, People"s Republic of China (1986).
In April 1947, he was elected as member of the Hiroshima city council, and as member of the Hiroshima Prefectural Assembly in 1951.