Nuclear taboo dying with Japan bomb survivors

As Japan prepares to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the dwindling band of survivors say they fear the country's long-standing taboo against developing nuclear weapons is ending.

Defence experts say much hinges on the outcome of six-party talks in Beijing on defusing the nuclear threat from North Korea, but there is pessimism among older generations that as other nations in Asia go nuclear, Japan will follow.

They will express these fears at anniversary commemorations expected to draw much larger numbers than usual.

The events are planned as the United States and North Korea are locked in the fourth round of talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons.

They entered a sixth day yesterday, with negotiators struggling to thrash out a statement of principles that has eluded them for nearly three years.

"I have never been more afraid about the future than I am now," said Michiko Yamaoka. "I don't trust the politicians in Tokyo to safeguard our anti-nuclear stance." Ms Yamaoka was 15 when Hiroshima was bombed on August 6, 1945.

That bomb contained 5kg of plutonium. Japan has amassed 45 tons of plutonium and is getting set to open one of the world's largest nuclear reprocessing plants.

"Japan is increasing the nuclear threat by accumulating plutonium and opening this plant, which will be the largest producer of plutonium in the world," said Atsuko Nogawa of Greenpeace Japan.

"Japan is about to become a country with a nuclear capability on a big scale."

The legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has meant talk of developing nuclear weapons has been political suicide for years. Official policy states Japan will not "manufacture or possess nuclear weapons".

But politicians have become bolder in challenging the taboo. Senior opposition figure Ichiro Ozawa said in 2002 that Japan could produce up to 4000 bombs.