Japan Press Weekly

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2013 March 13 - 19 [ANTI-N-ARMS]

US conducted new type of nuclear tests twice

It was revealed recently that the United States had twice conducted a new type of nuclear weapons tests between October and December last year.

Hearing of this, 45 Hiroshima citizens, including Hibakusha and anti-nuclear arms activists, on March 14 staged a sit-in protest against the two nuclear-weapons tests in front of the atomic bomb cenotaph at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

They criticized the U.S. action as undermining the world’s efforts to persuade North Korea to stop developing its nuclear weapons program.

The sit-in protesters sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama demanding a halt to all nuclear weapons tests and to Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Shinzo demanding that the Japanese government, as the only atomic-bombed country, lodge a protest against the U.S. administration.

The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bombs Sufferers’ Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) sent a letter of protest to President Obama who continues to carry out nuclear-weapons tests supposedly in order to maintain nuclear deterrence in contradiction to his own commitment to achieve a “world without nuclear weapons”.

The Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) criticized the nuclear tests as jeopardizing the principle of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the agreement on nuclear disarmament made in the 2010 NPT Review Conference.