Japan Press Weekly

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2023 March 1 - 7 [PEACE]

2023 Bikini Day rally held in Shizuoka

On March 1, the day marking the 69th anniversary of the U.S. hydrogen test explosion at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, the 2023 Bikini Day rally took place in Shizuoka City in Shizuoka Prefecture with the in-person and online participation of more than 1,500 people.

The rally adopted an appeal calling on Russia to withdraw from Ukraine. The appeal also urged the Japanese government to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and retract the approval of the three key national security documents which allow Japan’s possession of an enemy-base strike capability.

President of the Shizuoka A-Bomb Survivors Association Ishihara Yosuke, on behalf of the organizing committee, delivered the opening speech and expressed his hope that this year’s Bikini Day rally will provide a springboard for making a success of this year’s anti-nuke nationwide peace march and world conference.

Co-representative of the World Conference against A and H Bombs Steering Committee Noguchi Kunikazu in his keynote speech said, “Let us work hard to achieve a success in the ongoing signature-collection campaign calling for Japan’s participation in the TPNW in order to pressure the government to depart from the U.S. ‘nuclear umbrella’ policy and sign and ratify the TPNW.”

Nakano Hiromichi, mayor of Shizuoka’s Yaizu City where the homeport of the radiation-exposed fishing boat "Daigo Fukuryu Maru" is located, and Hamazumi Jiro, assistant secretary general of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), spoke as guests. Messages from Hiroshima Mayor Matsui Kazumi, Nagasaki Mayor Taue Tomihisa, and the Japanese Communist Party were read out.

Earlier in the day in Yaizu City, 500 people took part in a memorial march toward the tomb of Kuboyama Aikichi, chief radio operator of Daigo Fukuryu Maru, who died after being exposed to radiation fallout from the U.S. H-bomb test explosion.

A 19-year-old woman, Fujiwara Natsuki, who participated in the march for the first time, said, “With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the danger of nuclear annihilation has become a real possibility. Japan is the only A-bombed country in the world. However, the government is moving forward with a military buildup under the pretext of strengthening Japan’s deterrence capability. This is totally unacceptable.”