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2020 July 15 - 21 TOP3 [PEACE]

Hibakusha protest Trump justifying US development of A-bombs

U.S. President Donald Trump on July 16 released a statement justifying the U.S. government’s “Manhattan Project” to develop an atomic bomb by stating that it “helped end World War II and launch an unprecedented era of global stability, scientific innovation, and economic prosperity”.

The statement was published in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the first-ever nuclear test which took place in 1945 at the “Trinity Site” near Alamogordo in New Mexico. The statement speaks highly of the test as a “remarkable feat” and the “culmination of the Manhattan Project” while saying nothing about the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

On the following day, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) and the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) sent their written protests to the U.S. Embassy in Japan.

Hidankyo in its statement points out, “The U.S. atomic bombings annihilated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and slaughtered citizens in an indiscriminate manner. Nuclear weapons are an absolute evil and human beings cannot continue to coexist with them.” Stating that nuclear deterrence is ineffective in preventing wars, the Hidankyo statement points out, “Citizens and governments in the world, in particular governments of America, the only country to ever use the bomb as a weapon of war, and Japan, the only A-bombed country, should collaborate on efforts to abolish nuclear weapons.”

The Gensuikyo statement stresses the need to make the year 2020, the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings, a turning point to achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons. The statement criticizes President Trump by stating that his statement justifying the atomic bomb project tramples on Hibakusha’s aspiration for a nuclear weapon-free world and ignores global antinuke movements.

Gensuikyo in its statement urges that the United States, which created the human extinction crisis, learn lessons from history and take a new direction toward achieving the goal of banning and eliminating nuclear weapons as well as creating an equal and just world.

Past related article:
> Let’s open path for nuclear-free world on 75th anniversary of atomic bombings [January 3, 2020]