International people’s tribunal convicts U.S. for dropping A-bombs

   The International People’s Tribunal on the Dropping of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on July 16 convicted the U.S. government and 15 defendants, including then U.S. president, cabinet members, scientists who had developed the atomic bomb, and servicemen that had carried out the bombings.

   In the trial held at the Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima City, Presiding Judge Lennox Hinds, professor at Rutgers University, read out the ruling. The International People’s Tribunal pronounced the judgment in July 2006.

   The decision recommended that the U.S. government officially admit that the dropping of the atomic bombs violated international law, apologize, and compensate A-bomb victims and bereaved families.

   At the opening of the trial, Co-representative of the Tribunal Organizing Committee Tanaka Toshiyuki, professor at Hiroshima City University, said, “Although the people’s tribunal has no legal binding force, this does not lessen its legitimacy. The U.S. government should sincerely heed the decision as the first step toward the abolition of nuclear weapons.”

   About 300 people attending the trial adopted an appeal calling on U.S. President George W. Bush to implement the recommendations.

- Akahata, July 18, 2007