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Atomic bombings were illegal: international people's tribunal

An international people's tribunal has ruled that the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki violated international law, demanding that the U.S. government apologize and compensate all A-bombed survivors (Hibakusha).

The International Peoples' Tribunal on the Dropping of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place on July 15-16 at the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima City with about 250 observers.

Three international law schalors, including Rutgers University Professor Lennox Hinds, presided over the tribunal and examined testimonies of seven witnesses, including Hibakusha and international law experts.

The three judges issued the outline of the ruling that found 15 defendants guilty, including U.S. President Harry Truman and U.S. Cabinet members for ordering the dropping of the A-bombs, U.S. scientists for playing a key role in developing the bombs, and U.S. servicemen for carrying out the presidential order.

Lennox condemned the U.S. act, saying, "The A-bombs were weapons of indiscriminate killing that the 1899 Hague Declaration prohibited and the United States inhumanly attacked civilians as its military targets."

The tribunal decided to make the following recommendations to the U.S. government: The U.S. government should admit that the dropping of the A-bombs violated international law, apologize and compensate Hibakusha and their families, commit not to use a nuclear weapon again, make every effort to abolish nuclear weapons, and educate U.S. citizens that the A-bombings were against international law.

An official written verdict will be released within this year.
- Akahata, July 18, 2006