Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee president, has said the Tokyo Games will be a “beacon of hope” for peace during a visit to Hiroshima, as coronavirus cases in Tokyo exceeded 1,000 for a third straight day.
Bach, whose trip to Hiroshima was opposed by some people, laid a wreath and observed a minute’s silence in the rain in front of a cenotaph honouring the victims of the attack. He later met an 82-year-old survivor of the bombing.
Protesters in the peace memorial park were kept at a distance as they shouted “Go home, Bach!” and “You’re not welcome here”. Others near the A-bomb dome – one of the few buildings left standing after the US dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 – held up signs that read “Cancel the Olympics” and “No Bach”.
Bach, who was in the city to mark the start of the “Olympic truce” – a UN-backed call for a global ceasefire for the duration of the Tokyo Games – said he wished to “remember all the people who are commemorated at this very place”.
He added: “I am here to reaffirm our peace mission and to pay respect to Hiroshima, as a city of peace.”
Bach said the Games, due to open in a week, would “be a beacon of hope for a better and more peaceful future”.
The IOC’s vice-president, John Coates, made similar remarks in Nagasaki, which was destroyed by a US atomic bomb three days after Hiroshima.
Japan’s chief medical adviser, Shigeru Omi, urged the public not to watch outdoor Olympic events on the streets, as the capital reported 1,271 new Covid cases on Friday, compared with 822 on the same day last week.
It was the 27th day in a row that cases in Tokyo, which is under emergency restrictions that will last until after the Games, were higher than the same day the previous week.
Omi said it was “clear” that infections were trending upwards in Tokyo and warned that the virus could spread further.
Spectators have been banned from watching events at venues, but there are concerns that crowds will gather along the routes of outdoor events such as the marathons and bicycle road races.
Bach, who angered many in Japan for insisting that “sacrifices” must be made for the Games to go ahead during the pandemic, this week claimed there was “zero” risk of athletes in the Olympic village passing on the virus to Japanese or other residents of the village.
Some Hiroshima residents questioned Bach’s motives for visiting their city, coming after months of negative publicity surrounding preparations for the Games.
They included an unnamed survivor of the bombing in their 80s, who told the Kyodo news agency: “I wonder if Mr Bach wanted to visit Hiroshima of his own free will. It could be just a performance.”
Others wondered why he had travelled from Tokyo when the city’s residents were being asked to keep their movements to a minimum.
“The Covid-19 situation is getting worse, it hasn’t come to an end, and I wonder why this has to go ahead,” Sayuri Yamada, a medical worker, told the Associated Press.
“It’s not that I absolutely don’t want him to come. But rather, thinking about the safety of people, including the athletes, my opinion is like he doesn’t have to do this at a time when the risk is high.”