APPEAL OF HIROSHIMA PEACE DELEGATION TO
NPT REVIEW CONCONFERENCE
―COMMEMORATING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BOMBING―
The Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA)
Presidents: Goro Kawai, Haruko Moritaki, Mitsuo Okamoto
c/o Allied Hiroshima Coop, 8-23-4 Hacchoubori, Naka-ku, Hiroshima 730-0012
E-mail kenren.h@proof.ocn.ne.jp URL http://e-hanwa.org/
April～May, 2005
Hiroshima and Nagasaki will commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing on August 6th this year. When the late Pope John Paul II visited Hiroshima in 1981, he said: “To think about Hiroshima is to deny a nuclear war”. Has humanity thought seriously about Hiroshima, learned a real lesson from the Atomic Inferno, and succeeded in building a peaceful global society without nuclear weapons? Unfortunately, the answer is NO. On the contrary, the United States and the Soviet Union, joined by other big powers, took part in the nuclear arms race accumulating more than 69,000 nuclear warheads by 1986. True, the nuclear arms race has subsided since the end of the Cold War, and the total number of nuclear warheads has decreased, yet the Green Earth is still surrounded by more than 30,000 nuclear warheads as of early summer 2005.
In addition, since the 9/11 incident the Bush administration has become ever more dependent on nuclear weapons under the pretext of “war on terror” and has started developing usable mini-nukes such as earth-penetrating bunker-busters. As if to underscore such a project, they have made an open unhesitating declaration to resume nuclear experiments, which have ceased since 1992. The US Senate’s refusal to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the one-sided American abrogation of the ABM Treaty with Russia clearly shows the Bush administration’s posture of heavily relying on nuclear weapons. This all contradicts the ground swell of history toward the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Another grave concern of ours is the militarization of space, i.e. taking up once more the Strategic Defense Initiative originally proposed by President Reagan. This project is a sheer hallucination, and it was once pronounced dead, but the Bush administration is resuscitating the ghost. The project has nothing to do with the peace and security of the world, or even that of the American people. Although it may bring even greater profits to the US weapons industries, it will be worse than useless for Americans and world citizens. Moreover, as the weaponization of space involves the use of plutonium, a single accident may cause irreparable disaster for all life on earth.
Also, according to Iraqi medical doctors who visited Hiroshima a few times before the Iraq War serious health problems are bedeviling a great number of people in Iraq (and in former Yugoslavia) as the possible result of the use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons. In these areas where chemically poisonous and radioactive DU weapons were used by American and British troops, macabre diseases have been spreading, and particularly among children, there are countless cases of leukemia and cancers. At the same time, it is possible that exposure to the radioactive pollution caused by weapons made from depleted uranium may have caused serious health hazards suffered by the American and European soldiers alike who took part in military operations in these areas, and serious abnormalities in some of their children.
Certainly, we cannot tolerate terrorism of any kind. In particular, we would like to express our heartfelt condolences to the victims and the bereaved of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As citizens of Hiroshima we are sensitive enough to share the sorrow of the family members who lost their loved ones. At the same time, however, what we would like to share is that terrorism has to be addressed not by military retaliation, but by police and legal institutions reinforced by international solidarity. Violent retaliatory actions solve nothing but rather increase terrorism. In fact, the present situation in Iraq vividly illustrates the point.
The world remembers the humanitarian aid by the US at a time when people were suffering from the devastation brought on by WW II. Neither have we forgotten the fair and generous economic policy of the US, which helped Germany and Japan recover from misery and achieve the economic miracle. In contrast, however, we deplore that the unilateral behavior of the Bush administration, ignoring the UN and deriding international law, in the last four and half years has not only increased violence and terrorism in the world but significantly impaired the prestige of the US as the champion of democracy.
We, the hibakusha and citizens of Hiroshima, desire a peaceful world without nuclear weapons, wars, and terrorism. As we are visiting New York city at this occasion of the Review Conference of the Non Proliferation Treaty, we strongly urge that all nuclear weapons states critically reflect on their poor records of implementing the “unequivocal undertaking” of nuclear disarmament agreed upon in 2000. We implore you to reconfirm the commitment to make every effort to accomplish substantial nuclear disarmament by the Review Conference of the NPT in 2010.
We dare to say that the policy of nuclear deterrence is nothing but “state terrorism” with the weapons of the devil and Hiroshima cannot accept this evil of “state terrorism”. It would be impossible to prevent the appearance of new nuclear weapon states and to maintain the NPT regime as long as a group of specific states claim the legitimacy of keeping nuclear weapons in a world where nations, big or small, ought to be treated equally under international law. Are these “privileged” nations who advocate the evil of “state terrorism” qualified to criticize the evil of the terrorists? We cannot accept the US proposal to undermine the NPT agreement by means of its “nuclear review posture” under the pretext of “war on terror.” Such an act violates the disarmament obligation stipulated in Article VI of the Non Proliferation Treaty.
The only way to avoid a nuclear catastrophe is to pay proper respect to worldwide law and order enshrined in the UN Charter through which gradual and complete nuclear disarmament may eventually be accomplished. The NPT serves only as the first step, but it is nevertheless the only international treaty on nuclear weapons and has to be respected as such. The international society, therefore, has the responsibility to implement concrete measures aimed at accomplishing the following objectives: 1) gaining greater international respect for the NPT; 2) treating all nations equally, with none privileged and none discriminated against; 3) the prohibition of pre-emptive nuclear strikes; 4) a halt to the development, experiment, and production of nuclear weapons; 5) reinforcement of the NPT agreement by ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; and 6) taking all nuclear warheads off hair trigger alert
We, the hibakusha and citizens of Hiroshima, come to the UN at this 60th year since the Atomic Bombing. We urgently demand with “a burning spirit of Hiroshima” that the US and other nuclear weapon states promote more effective moves toward nuclear disarmament, realize a total and complete nuclear disarmament in the early years of the 21st century, and make utmost efforts to prepare a truly peaceful world free of nuclear weapons, free of wars, and free of terrorism.
The members of the delegation:
Mr. Shuichi Adachi (Attorney), Mr. Suguru Fujiwara (Pharmacist), Ms. Yukuko Fujiwara (Teacher, School for Challenged Children), Ms. Haruka Katarao (Graduate Student), Ms. Kuniyo Kawabata(YWCA Officer), Mr. Nobuo Kazashi (Ph.D., Professor), Ms. Haruko Moritaki (Peace Advocate), Mr. Mitsuo Okamoto (Ph.D., Professor Emeritus), Ms. Kazuko Koyama (Interpreter), Ms. Tomoko Koyama (Junior Highschool Student), Ms. Yoshie Ozaki (Volunteer Interpreter), Ms. Fumiko Sora (Hibakusha), Mr. Takayuki Sasaki (Graduate Student), Ms. Miwako Sawada (Company Executive & Interpreter), Mr. Osamu Shinohara (Professor), Mr. Toshiyuki Tanaka (Ph.D., Professor), Mr. Katsumi Toshimoto (Corporate Officer), Mr. Ichiro Yuasa (Ph.D., Scientist).
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