US subcritical nuclear test contradicts Obama’s call for nuclear free world: Shii

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

US subcritical nuclear test contradicts Obama’s call for nuclear free world: Shii

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo criticized the latest U.S. subcritical nuclear test as contradicting President Obama’s own promise for an effort to achieve a world without nuclear weapons.

Asked by reporters for a comment on the first subcritical nuclear test under the Obama administration, Shii on October 14 said, “I strongly protest against the test. What the U.S. government must do is to take effective actions to keep its promise made to the international community to seek a nuclear free world.”

Furthermore, Shii pointed out that the United States has turned its back on the final document of the NPT Review Conference in May this year which reaffirms the “unequivocal undertaking” by the nuclear-weapon states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals.

Regarding the fact that the Kan administration has lodged no protest with the U.S. government, Shii said, “It’s shameful that the only A-bombed nation’s government is unwilling to protest against the U.S. government regarding the test, while the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as Hibakusha are expressing their outrage at the U.S. nuclear experiment. The reason for this is because the Kan government is committed to its outdated argument of ‘nuclear deterrence’.”

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On the same day, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-bombs Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) and the Japan Council Against A and H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo), respectively, sent a statement of protest to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.

In the statement Nihon Hidankyo states, “The U.S. subcritical nuclear test is outrageous and runs counter to the world call for the elimination of nuclear weapons. We lodge a serious protest against it and condemn it with indignation.”

The Gensuikyo statement urges the U.S. government to abandon all future nuclear testing plans and to make efforts to immediately reach a goal for the total abolition of nuclear weapons by saying, “The nuclear testing goes against ongoing worldwide efforts to achieve a world without nuclear weapons. This act apparently undermines the moral ground of the U.S. administration in calling any other country to renounce the development of nuclear weapons or abide by non-proliferation principle.”

- Akahata, October 15, 2010