March 2, 2021
UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Nakamitsu Izumi on March 1 delivered a speech at a main rally of Bikini Day events online.
Nakamitsu pointed out that a provision to support victims of nuclear-weapons tests included in the UN treaty banning nuclear weapons is a welcoming sign of progress for Hibakusha and all the other nuclear victims. She said that the treaty's entry into force is one big step forward for people's efforts calling for nuclear disarmament.
At the rally, a message of Oishi Matashichi, a former crewmember of the fishing boat Daigo Fukuryu Maru, was read in which he said, "The Bikini incident was not a thing of the past but an issue relating to the future of human existence."
Nakano Hiromichi, mayor of Shizuoka's Yaizu City, the homeport of Daigo Fukuryu Maru, also made a speech in solidarity at the rally. Hiroshima City Mayor Matsui Kazumi, Nagasaki City Mayor Taue Tomihisa, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo, representatives of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Reiwa Shinsengumi Party, and a high school peace ambassador sent their messages in solidarity to the rally.
A workshop followed the rally under the theme of "nuclear-free peaceful Asia". Joseph Gerson, president of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security; Lee Jun Kyu, senior researcher at the Institute for Unification and Peace Policy of Hanshin University; Roland Simbulan, professor at the University of the Philippines; and Tsuchida Yayoi, vice secretary general of the Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) exchanged their views on ways to increase movements taking up the common challenge of working to prohibit nuclear weapons.
In Yaizu City in Shizuoka Prefecture, a memorial service took place at Kotokuin Temple where Kuboyama Aikichi, chief radio operator of Daigo Fukuryu Maru, is buried.
Past related article:
> Memorial service held in front of Bikini tragedy victim's tomb [March 2, 2020]
Nakamitsu pointed out that a provision to support victims of nuclear-weapons tests included in the UN treaty banning nuclear weapons is a welcoming sign of progress for Hibakusha and all the other nuclear victims. She said that the treaty's entry into force is one big step forward for people's efforts calling for nuclear disarmament.
At the rally, a message of Oishi Matashichi, a former crewmember of the fishing boat Daigo Fukuryu Maru, was read in which he said, "The Bikini incident was not a thing of the past but an issue relating to the future of human existence."
Nakano Hiromichi, mayor of Shizuoka's Yaizu City, the homeport of Daigo Fukuryu Maru, also made a speech in solidarity at the rally. Hiroshima City Mayor Matsui Kazumi, Nagasaki City Mayor Taue Tomihisa, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo, representatives of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Reiwa Shinsengumi Party, and a high school peace ambassador sent their messages in solidarity to the rally.
A workshop followed the rally under the theme of "nuclear-free peaceful Asia". Joseph Gerson, president of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security; Lee Jun Kyu, senior researcher at the Institute for Unification and Peace Policy of Hanshin University; Roland Simbulan, professor at the University of the Philippines; and Tsuchida Yayoi, vice secretary general of the Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) exchanged their views on ways to increase movements taking up the common challenge of working to prohibit nuclear weapons.
In Yaizu City in Shizuoka Prefecture, a memorial service took place at Kotokuin Temple where Kuboyama Aikichi, chief radio operator of Daigo Fukuryu Maru, is buried.
Past related article:
> Memorial service held in front of Bikini tragedy victim's tomb [March 2, 2020]
