May 19, 2024

Japanese Communist Party Chair Tamura Tomoko on May 18 expressed her “firm protest” against the U.S. Biden Administration’s subcritical nuclear test on May 14.

At a press conference in Tokyo, asked by reporters for comments on the test, Tamura said, “It runs counter to the global effort to establish a world without nuclear weapons. It will only function to reinforce the threat of nuclear weapons.”

Tamura noted that Japanese Hibakusha had directly requested the Biden Administration to cancel the test since the plan was brought up, and pointed out that forcing the test was an act of that trampled on the voices of Hibakusha.

Tamura said that States Parties to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) share the common understanding that nuclear weapons will never be abolished if the position of nuclear deterrence doctrine continues to be accepted. She added that these countries are also aware that the nuclear deterrence logic will continue to place the planet under the threat that nuclear weapons may one day be used.

She demanded that the government of Japan, the only A-bombed nation in the world, raise its voice together with Hibakusha in protest against the latest U.S. nuclear test.

Since 1992, the U.S. Administration has not carried out a nuclear experiment involving an explosion. It has signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) but has yet to ratify it. It continues to conduct subcritical nuclear tests, claiming that the treaty does not prohibit nuclear tests that do not involve explosions. The latest one was the 34th subcritical test and was the third under the Biden Administration.

Past related article:
> Hibakusha/antinuke peace groups protest against US subcritical nuclear tests [April 14, 2022]