Japan Press Weekly

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2014 December 10 - 16 TOP3 [PEACE]

Hibakusha criticize gov’t delegate at Conference on Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons

Hibakusha have criticized the Japanese ambassador for disarmament who made a remark stating that the notion that a nuclear blast would bring about disastrous consequences beyond international society’s ability to cope with is “pessimistic”.

In the 3rd Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons which began on December 8 in Vienna, Austria, experts in their study reports presented their opinion that it is “impossible to fully rescue citizens after nuclear explosions”.

At a meeting at the Conference, Sano Toshio, head of the Permanent Delegation of Japan to the Conference on Disarmament, said that they are being overly pessimistic. Even in front of the press corps, he said, “With full body radiation hazmat suits, anyone can enter the hypocenter.”

Setsuko Thurlow, who survived the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and now lives in Canada, after the meeting, argued against Sano by saying, “If you think it is easy to cope with situations after a nuclear blast, your belief is unrealistic from my experience in Hiroshima.”

She said, “Sano’s remark is based on support for the possible use of nuclear weapons. I came to the Conference in order to eliminate such a possibility.”