Japan Press Weekly

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2020 April 22 - May 12 [PEACE]

Youth rally of antinuke conference in NYC takes place online

The Youth Rally of the World Conference against A and H Bombs in NYC took place online on May 2. Seven speakers talked about their reasons for supporting the call to achieve a world without nuclear weapons and stated that they will shortly hold breakout sessions online.

Franca Brueggen from Germany, who represented medical students of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), and Kelvin Kibet from Kenya talked about the threat of nuclear weapons and the coronavirus outbreak.

Environmental activist Taniguchi Takahisa who lives in Germany said that it is developing countries that are most affected by greenhouse gas emissions by developed countries. He pointed out that today's social system must be linked to the ongoing corona crisis and the issue of climate change, nuclear power stations, and social injustice.

Rachel MacCave from the U.S., a program and administrative associate for Intersections International, said that socially vulnerable people such as ethnic minorities, women, children, the poor, and LGBTQ people will suffer the most negative effects in the event of a disaster caused by abnormal weather.

Yasmeen Silva, a partnership advisor of Beyond the Bomb, said, "An effective way to break the structure pertaining to nuclear weapons is to address various issues associated with the present social structure which produced nuclear weapons."

Koyama Minoru, chairman of the Democratic Youth League of Japan (DYLJ), said that civil society through learning about the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from A-bomb survivors (Hibakusha) played a part in realizing the UN treaty banning nuclear weapons. He also said that grassroots activities among young people is important.

Tahara Chihiro, chair of High School Students Paper Crane Project to Connect Tokyo and New York, stressed the need to have courage to engage in the movement to press the Japanese government to sign and ratify the UN treaty by saying, "I want to have more friends who cry out against nuclear weapons together with me and also want a world free of nuclear weapons as soon as possible by standing together with Hibakusha."