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2009 April 29 - May 12 [ANTI-N-ARMS]

‘Discrepancy’ in debate on abolition of nuclear weapons

Akahata ‘Current’ column

One night in April, I was watching a debate on TV. Several politicians, known as “conservative polemics,” started to discuss an issue.

At issue was whether Japan should arm itself with nuclear weapons. “What a weird topic they have brought up!” I thought at first. Their arguments made me realize that they are aloof from what is happening nowadays throughout the world, in particular the recent speech by U.S. President Barack Obama that expressed determination to seek a world without nuclear weapons.

Then I further pondered about this discrepancy. What is going on in Japan? Why doesn’t it come to their minds that they should discuss ways to realize a world without nuclear weapons? Why don’t they initiate such a discussion in response to the Obama speech?

Such a debate could include an idea to create huge global movements promoting the abolition of nuclear weapons that would encourage North Korea to give up its nuclear program.

The “discrepancy,” which I felt that night, was proven by the Aso Cabinet’s irresponsible reaction to Obama’s statement. While expressing support for the Obama speech, they still cling to the need for the U.S. nuclear umbrella, putting a brake to the move for nuclear weapons elimination instead of accelerating it.

By reading Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo’s letter to Obama, I felt heartily gratified. It called for international negotiations to be started for realizing a nuclear weapons-free world. As a politician of the A-bombed nation with Article 9 of the Constitution, Shii must have written the letter hoping for the president’s speech to have “real power.”

Then good news came. The NPT Review Conference next year will discuss the “unequivocal undertaking” to eliminate nuclear arsenals committed to by nuclear weapons states in the 2000 NPT Review Conference. This was also called for by Shii in his letter to the U.S. president. The Obama speech has started to exercise “real power.”