Bikini Day will provide a new beginning of the movement toward a world free of nuclear weapons or wars

March 1 marks the 50th anniversary of a Japanese fishing boat along with many islanders being showered with radioactive fall-out from a U.S. hydrogen bomb test explosion at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. The Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo) together with trade unions and various peace organizations will hold rallies to commemorate Bikini Day from which the Japanese Movement against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs started.

In an interview published by Akahata of February 18, Gensuikyo Secretary General Takakusagi Hiroshi spoke about the movement as follows:

The U.S. hydrogen bomb tests caused serious radioactive contamination to residents of the Marshall Islands as well as Japanese fishing boats in the seas which were supposed to be outside "danger zones". Crew member Kuboyama Aikichi of the Lucky Dragon #5 died, fish disappeared from people's meals, and threats of nuclear weapons increased. This gave rise to a major signature campaign throughout Japan calling for atomic and hydrogen bombs to be prohibited.

In 1955, the first World Conference against A and H Bombs was held, and the Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo) was established. The movement has since contributed to heightening public awareness of the need to abolish nuclear weapons and to making the demand a steady mainstream in international politics.

Thus the March 1 Bikini Day has become a day of special importance for the peace movement of Japan, the only A-bombed country, and for the world.

Extraordinary subordination to the U.S.

The U.S. Bush administration is recklessly carrying out its preemptive attack strategy with the use of nuclear weapons as an option, and the Japanese government is more subservient than ever to the United States. Gensuikyo is determined to make the 50th anniversary of the Bikini tragedy a new beginning toward building a peaceful 21st century without wars or nuclear weapons.

In the war of aggression against Iraq, the United States used many Tomahawk missiles, depleted uranium (DU) and cluster bombs to overpower the Iraqi regime and gain victory. But the United States now finds itself in a difficult position, unable to convincingly explain how it can justify the Iraq war in the first place.

In his State of the Union address in January, U.S. President Bush tried to justify the war by stating that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program had been thwarted by the military action. Immediately after the president's address, the person who led the U.S. investigation of WMDs in Iraq revealed that WMDs had not existed in Iraq. This shows that the United States maintains its policy of preemptively attacking another country on the pretext of "preventing the proliferation" of WMDs, by piling up lie after lie while it maintains its own enormous nuclear war capability and is now developing "usable" small nuclear weapons. This is nothing less than a lawless act that destroys the peaceful world order.

Guided by Article 9

In the face of increasing danger of the imminent use of nuclear weapons, "No to Bush" calls are spreading more extensively than ever. The United Nations General Assembly in December 2003 adopted nuclear disarmament resolutions, including one calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons by 133-6, and another calling for a reduction of non-strategic nuclear arsenals, by 128-4. Given the fact that NATO has 19 member countries, these numbers suggest how isolated the U.S. Bush administration is.

The 1st World Conference against A and H Bombs called for a ban on nuclear weapons and warned of the danger that Japan might be involved in a nuclear war.

Nevertheless, the Koizumi Cabinet has dispatched the Self-Defense Forces to a war zone for the first time since the end of World War II, a gesture of cooperation with the United States in its war of aggression in Iraq. It also allows U.S. military bases in Japan to be fortified as stepping stones for the U.S. preemptive attack strategy that involves the possible use of nuclear weapons.

As the people of A-bombed Japan which has its war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, we must give full play to our movement against nuclear weapons and for peace, which has great international importance.

More exchanges called for

Next year marks the 60th anniversary of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In May next year, signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty will hold a review conference. Many of them are urging nuclear weapons countries to fulfill their promise to "eliminate their nuclear arsenals".

The World Conference against A and H Bombs last year launched a major worldwide signature collection campaign to "Eliminate nuclear weapons now" in order to make the year 2005 a turning point for this goal.

In preparation for the NPT review conference, mayors of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and others cities participating in the World Conference of Mayors for Peace through Inter-City Solidarity are calling for a start of talks aimed at totally banning nuclear weapons.

This year's Bikini Day will provide a starting point for the effort to develop our movement toward the 2004 World Conference against A & H Bombs and the 60th anniversary of the A-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 2005. It will give people throughout Japan an opportunity to bring their anti-nuclear and anti-SDF dispatch activities from their communities, places of work, and schools, and to discuss and interact with each other. (end)

Main Bikini Day events

February 28: International Symposium commemorating the 50th anniversary of the hydrogen bomb test explosion at Bikini Atoll.

February 29: Gensuikyo's National Assembly.

March 1: 2004 Bikini Day Rally, memorial ceremony for Kuboyama Aikichi

A series of events are annually held around March 1 to remember the victims of the 1954 U.S. hydrogen bomb test explosion at Bikini Atoll and to reaffirm the determination to abolish nuclear weapons. National rallies and symposiums take place in Shizuoka and Yaizu cities attended by overseas delegates. This year's foreign guests include John Anjain, mayor of the Rongelap Island at the time of the test in 1954, and Joseph Gainza of the American Friends Service Committee.