Japan Press Weekly

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2022 June 22 - 28 [PEACE]

Responding to IPB's 'Peace Wave' actions, Nagasaki Hibakusha and peace activists call for nuclear disarmament

International joint "Peace Wave" actions called for by the International Peace Bureau (IPB) took place at many locations in Japan on June 26, calling for the reduction/dismantling of military alliances and for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

The Nagasaki Council against A and H Bombs (Nagasaki Gensuikyo) and the Nagasaki Peace Committee in response to the IPB call took to the streets near downtown Nagasaki City. Demonstrators held banners and placards which read, "No! nuclear sharing, No! nuclear weapons", and appealed to passersby for nuclear disarmament.

Tanaka Shigemitsu who heads the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors' Council criticized the Kishida government for refusing to sit in on the first meeting of the State Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in Vienna while attending a NATO summit meeting instead. He said, "Prime Minister Kishida is the leader of the only atomic-bombed country. He should have participated in the TPNW meeting in order to act as a bridge between the nuclear haves and nuclear have-nots. I will cooperate with as many people as possible to make Nagasaki the last place to be nuclear-bombed."

Oya Masato of the Nagasaki Gesuikyo said. "Diplomacy to prevent war is a major duty of politics. The government should learn this from the ongoing aggression by Russia against Ukraine."

Two junior high school students watching the Nagasaki action said, "We don't want Japan to be nuclear-armed. We want a world without nuclear weapons, without war."

In addition, in a shopping district in Tokyo, the Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) and the Japan Peace Committee held a street speech rally.

Japan Gensuikyo representative director Taka Hiroshi said that the ban on nuclear weapons has become international public opinion in addition to the opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine which violates the UN Charter. He called on shoppers to raise their voices together against nuclear weapons and against wars of aggression.