Japan Press Weekly

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2013 February 13 - 19 [NORTH KOREA]

Hiroshima Hibakusha stage sit-in against N. Korea nuclear test

About 60 Hiroshima atomic bomb survivors and their supporters on February 13 staged a sit-in protesting the third nuclear test conducted by North Korea in front of the A-bomb monument in Hiroshima City.

Under the initiative of the Hiroshima Federation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers’ Organization (Hiroshima Hidankyo) and the Hiroshima Council against A and H Bombs (Hiroshima Gensuikyo), the protesters demanded that North Korea immediately abandon its nuclear weapon development and testing programs.

The need is for all nuclear weapon states to play a positive part in initiating the start of talks on an international treaty banning nuclear weapons, they pointed out.

They especially made a demand on the Japanese government that as the only A-bombed country, it should take a lead in the work to bring nuclear weapon states to the negotiating table to reach a nuclear ban treaty.

Hiroshima Hibakusha and the anti-nuke group sent these demands in writing to North Korea, nuclear weapons possessing states, and the Japanese government.

Another group composed by the Japan Congress against A- and H-Bombs (Gensuikin) and a company-dominated labor organization also carried out a protest action side-by-side at the same spot.

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The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers’ Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) issued a letter of protest strongly encouraging North Korea to drop the notion that nuclear weapons can defend the nation and to pour that energy into contributing to world peace.

The letter calls on Japan and the world’s governments to refrain from hinting at the use of force and take a rational response to handle the issue.

Hiroshima Prefecture and the cities of Hiroshima, Fukuyama, Kure, Takehara, Onomichi, Mihara, Miyoshi, Higashihiroshima, Hatsukaichi, and Otake sent their letters of protest addressed to Kim Jong-un.

Hiroshima Governor Yuzaki Hidehiko called on North Korea to conduct diplomacy without relying on nuclear deterrence.

The Nagasaki prefectural committee of the Japanese Communist Party, the Yamaguchi governor and the Yamaguchi prefectural assembly chair, the JCP members’ group of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, the Association for a Non-Nuclear Government, the Japan Asia Africa Latin America Solidarity Committee (Japan AALA), the Japan Federation of Women’s Organizations (Fudanren), and the Japan P.E.N. Club also made similar protests.

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Both the Upper and the Lower Houses of the Diet at their plenary sessions on February 14 and 15 unanimously adopted resolutions of protest against North Korea’s nuclear test.