Japan Press Weekly

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2011 July 27 - August 2 [WOMEN]

8,500 mothers resolved to save children from nuclear power

About 8,500 mothers on July 30 and 31 took part in the 57th Japan Mothers’ Congress in Hiroshima City, making a commitment to protect children from the adverse effects of nuclear power through a nationwide mothers’ network.

About 250 women from Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima prefectures came to attend the Congress to relate the present conditions in the 3.11 disaster-stricken region and their sufferings from the ongoing damage caused by the spread of radiation from TEPCO’s Fukushima nuclear plant.

A drama titled, “Nuclear, World, and Children” was performed on the first day. During the Congress, the participants exchanged information on how their communities are coping after the 3.11 disaster as well as on their local activities to work toward a nuclear-free Japan and to defend education, employment, and agriculture.

Takada Kimiko of the Organizing Committee of the Japan Mothers’ Congress said that this year’s Congress featured the 3.11 disaster relief activities and this symbolizes a strong bond of solidarity among mothers across the country.

The Japan Mothers’ Congress came into being in 1955 on the urging of the prominent Japanese women’s activist, Hiratsuka Raicho, commemorating the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945) and a Japanese fishing boat being showered with radioactive fallout from a U.S. hydrogen bomb test explosion in the Bikini Atoll (1954). Since then, the Congress has taken place annually for the purpose of protecting children from nuclear crises.