A-bomb survivors to increase tours abroad on anti-nuclear weapons mission

The Japan Confederation of A and H Bombs Sufferers Organizations (Hidankyo) held its 46th Assembly from June 4 to 5 in Tokyo to decide on its activities appropriate to its 45th founding anniversary.

The action plan centers on efforts to achieve the elimination nuclear weapons in the early part of the 21st century.

The assembly decided to hold an international citizens' tribunal by 2005 to pass judgment on the crime of the use of nuclear weapons. The action plan also includes hibakusha's overseas tours to let people around the world know first hand about hibakusha's experiences in the A-bombings and to appeal for the need to abolish nuclear weapons and engage in signature collecting campaigns requesting governmental measures and calls on local governments for cooperation.

Promoting a movement to achieve a system of state compensation to Hiroshima and Nagasaki hibakusha and a drastic improvement in designating A-bomb related health disorders is also part of their task.

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Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo sent a message to the Hidankyo Convention expressing his respect for the hibakusha movement over the years. He said that the call for a world free of nuclear weapons is now a majority opinion in the world, and people have the common task of urging the nuclear weapons states to keep their promise to eliminate nuclear weapons.

However, the U.S. Bush administration is moving against this call of the world and is moving ahead with developing tactical nuclear weapons, Shii said. Therefore, it is all the more important for the hibakusha to tell the world of their never-ending suffering from the health affects of atomic and hydrogen bombs, Shii's message stated. His message ends with a call on the Japanese people to strengthen the movement to not allow U.S. nuclear weapons to be brought into Japan and to achieve the elimination of nuclear weapons. It would be the surest contribution by Japan to peace in Asia and the rest of the world, Shii added. (end)