Japan Gensuikyo secretary general gives speech at International Peace Bureau

Japan Press Weekly

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Japan Gensuikyo secretary general gives speech at International Peace Bureau

Taka Hiroshi, secretary general of the Japan Council against Atomic & Hydrogen Bombs (Japan Gensuiko) gave the following statement at the annual conference of the International Peace Bureau (IPB) held on November 14-18 in Washington, D.C.:

Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you. I am glad that the IPB chose for this session the timely theme of “nuclear abolition; it’s time to get serious.” In the midst of the “Cold War” in the 1970s, when many people still believed that nuclear weapons were working as a “deterrent” or “guarantee” of security, the IPB took the initiative of organizing with us the first International Symposium on the damage and after-effects of the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It made known to the world for the first time the depth of the nuclear calamity wrought by the two atomic bombs. Sean McBride, the then president of the IPB, courageously propounded the goal of declaring the “illegality of nuclear weapons.” It was at the time when the goal of banning nuclear weapons was thought to be good but unrealistic. Now, when a decisive turn from “non-proliferation of nuclear weapons” to their “total abolition” is the key task on the agenda, I hope that the IPB will continue to play its pioneering role.

The leader of the nuclear superpower USA stated that he pursues a world without nuclear weapons, and the Japanese prime minister pledges that Japan will stand in the forefront of the international effort to achieve this. This extraordinary situation is offering us an unprecedented window of opportunity. Our signature campaign urging the start of the negotiations for a nuclear weapons convention has spread to all 1,800 Japanese cities and villages, and the number of new signatures collected has exceeded 2 million. Mayors, chairs of boards of education, presidents of chambers of commerce and industry, leaders of agricultural cooperatives and many others who were not actively involved in the movements to abolish nuclear weapons are now joining in the campaign. In some cases, even the Japanese traditional neighborhood associations are circulating signature petitions for their residents.

Our goal is 12 million signatures, representing some 10% of Japan’s total population. We will take all of them to New York. Many people, including young people and the elderly Hibakusha, are planning to take paper cranes as well. The number of people planning to go to NY has already exceeded 900. We have received a letter from the president of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions saying that it has set the goal of 5 million signatures from India. In addition to our campaign, the Mayors for Peace, Gensuikin and the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO) and other organizations are also running their own signature drives. Our position is to work in solidarity with everyone who stands in support of nuclear abolition. I hope that we will start planning a joint submission of the signatures in front of the UN Headquarters on May 2, 2010.

The present development concerning nuclear abolition has motivated us to redouble our efforts to gain overwhelming public support. True, the summit of the UN Security Council on Sept. 24 unanimously adopted a resolution declaring to create conditions for a world without nuclear weapons; the US and Russia are negotiating a START follow-up treaty; and an early entry into force of the CTBT and start of the FMCT negotiations is now on the agenda. Nevertheless, even if all these are achieved, the world will still not be rid of nuclear weapons. Nor will the danger of nuclear proliferation be overcome. Achieving a nuclear weapon-free world requires the consistent effort to negotiate, and establish a universal, legally-binding agreement.

In the session of the First Committee of the UNGA, however, US, UK and French representatives again opposed the only proposal that called for the immediate start of negotiations on the nuclear weapons convention. They even opposed a resolution calling for a ban on the use of nuclear weapons, although President Obama at the UNSC Summit unambiguously declared the spread and use of nuclear weapons as a “fundamental threat”.

The International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND), sponsored by the Australian and Japanese governments, despite its initial pledge that it would set out a realistic course to achieve a nuclear weapon-free world, seems now unable to present any time-frame by which nuclear weapons are to be abolished. Even at what it calls the “vantage point” in 2025, the world will still have as many as 2,000 nuclear weapons. This will not be a “nuclear weapon-free world”. Rather, it will serve to obstruct any true progress to achieve a nuclear weapon-free world. The horrendous reality of the bombing s of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 demonstrates that even one atom bomb is too many for the survival of humanity.

What spurs us into action, however, is not a sense of crisis or despair. Rather, it is our own trust in the action and demands of the people. They are the true actors of history. They have caused a change, in the US, in Japan, and in many other countries even in these last few years. Our challenge is to press governments further. Together with many governments that are now with us in calling for nuclear weapons abolition, we can bring about a “change” from the order of the “Cold War” into a world free of nuclear weapons. For the next 195 days until May 28, 2010, the final day of the next NPT Review Conference, we need to keep telling people everywhere in the world that a nuclear weapon-free world is possible, and that everyone must express his/her will and take action to achieve this. We thus should develop joint efforts within civil society and with like-minded people in or of government, so that the output of the review conference, the final document, will show a clear path to a total ban on nuclear weapons.

To reach this goal, we want to make every effort so that the Second Superpower (world public opinion) will turn into the first Super Power, so that the people united will become the true protagonists of history, extending solidarity with all movements to end the hideous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, all efforts to protect the global environment and the global struggles for a just economic order. Before concluding, let me express our deep sense of admiration and respect to the US peace movement. You have stood in the forefront in generating a true “change” in the first decade of the 21st century.

- Akahata, November 19, 2009