March 1 will mark 70 years since the US conducted a hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. A relative of a Japanese fisher exposed to radiation will attend a ceremony in the Marshall Islands to call for the abolition of nuclear arms.

When the test was conducted in 1954, the crew members of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru from Yaizu, central Japan, and fishing boats from Kochi Prefecture, southwestern Japan, were exposed to radiation.

Shimomoto Setsuko's late father was on one of the vessels from Kochi. She will attend a ceremony to be held in the capital of the Marshall Islands, Majuro, on March 1. Local people who were exposed to the radiation will also take part.

Shimomoto says she wants to meet them, as well as local lawmakers, to appeal for the elimination of nuclear weapons. She says she also wants to highlight the fact that many fishing boats from Kochi were irradiated.

Shimomoto says she wants many more people to understand the dangers of internal exposure.

Ten years ago, a former crew member of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru, Oishi Matashichi, took part in the ceremony.