World Conference calls for grassroots action toward 2010 NPT Review Conference to get nuclear weapons abolished

Japan Press Weekly

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

World Conference calls for grassroots action toward 2010 NPT Review Conference to get nuclear weapons abolished

About 7,800 people taking part in the 2009 World Conference against A & H Bombs-Nagasaki pledged to increase grassroots efforts to pave the way for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

The main and concluding part of this year's World Conference took place in Nagasaki from August 7-9.

Young participants from abroad as well as from all over Japan attentively listened to A-bomb survivors (Hibakusha) speaking about their experience of the atomic bombing and 64 years of their suffering from various diseases caused by exposure to atomic bomb radiation.

A 23-year-old medical social worker from Fukushima, who attended the meeting with Hibakusha, said, "I am struck by the fact that the atomic bombings not only took the lives of so many people but also continue to torment Hibakusha even after more than 60 years because of after-effects. We must not be deceived by arguments to justify nuclear weapons as something necessary for peace."

Taniguchi Sumiteru, a Hibakusha of Nagasaki, at a young people's meeting spoke about his bitter experience to 1,600 participants and called on them to "join hands with Hibakusha in the movement to totally eliminate nuclear weapons as swiftly as possible."

The closing plenary of the World Conference adopted a letter to the world's governments calling on them to act to start international negotiations for a total ban on nuclear weapons and their elimination.

In concluding all the programs of the 2009 World Conference against A & H Bombs, Taka Hiroshi, Japan Council against A & H Bombs secretary general, called on participants to achieve the goal of collecting 12 million signatures in support of a world free of nuclear weapons toward the next NPT Review Conference next May.

Taka also called for immediate action to replace the present government in the upcoming election over Japan's future and action to get Japan to strictly observe the war renouncing Article 9 and the Three Non-Nuclear Principles (not to possess, manufacture or allow the entry of nuclear weapons).

Nagasaki mayor pledges to continue to call for nuclear weapons to be eradicated so that everyone can live with dignity

On August 9, bells resounded over the City of Nagasaki at 11:02 AM, the time when a U.S. atomic bomb detonated 64 years ago.

At the memorial ceremony held by the city, Mayor Taue Tomihisa in the Nagasaki Peace Declaration referred to U.S. President Barack Obama's Prague speech in April and said that a superpower possessing nuclear weapons "finally took a step towards the elimination of nuclear armaments."

He also said, "The government must globally disseminate the ideals of peace and renunciation of war prescribed in the Japanese Constitution. The government must also embark on measures to establish a firm position on the Three Non-Nuclear Principles by enacting them into law."

Miguel D'Escoto, U.N. General Assembly president, attended the ceremony and spoke.

Prime Minister Aso Taro in his speech, who had emphasized that Japan needs to be protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella in his Hiroshima speech, never touched on the Obama speech that called for a world without nuclear weapons.

? Akahata, August 8, 9, and 10, 2009