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At 5:00 am on August 6th, it was still dark.
I entered Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park for
the first time in awhile and saw that "prayers
of Hiroshima" had already begun in front
of the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims and
the Memorial Tower. Relatives and friends
of those killed by the bombing joined the
general public in an unbroken line of people
paying their respects. Without doubt, they
were mourning the dead and praying for a
peaceful world. It is impossible to imagine
how anyone--be they powerful leader or terrorist--could
stand among these solemn and pure-hearted
persons and support the nuclear tragedy or
another use of nuclear weapons.
It was the last A-bomb Day of the century.
All of us who lived during this century are
shamed by it. During the past 100 years of
war, the most advanced scientific technologies
were employed for the slaughter of human
beings. The "nuclear century" brought
hell on Earth to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Now, still trapped under the threat of nuclear
weapons, we carry this debt forward to the
new century. The US Senate refused to ratify
the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
(CTBT). The US and Russia repeatedly conduct
sub-critical nuclear tests and have announced
the possibility of developing new kinds of
nuclear weapons. India and Pakistan have
conducted nuclear tests in their attempt
to join the club of nuclear-weapon states.
Although the purpose of science and technology
should be to help humans coexist, improve
our lives, and increase our prosperity, that
philosophy is not yet reflected in the uses
of nuclear technology. At the Okinawa Summit,
not a single head of state made a move to
tour the Hiroshima - Nagasaki A-bomb Exhibition,
which was displayed precisely for that purpose.
Developing nuclear weapons that threaten
the continuation of our own species is a
betrayal of conscience and defies logic in
people who cannot even keep up with scientific
developments.
However, collective efforts to stand up to
the nuclear giant have without doubt prevented
a third nuclear disaster. At various times,
including the Korean War and the Cuban missile
crisis, the world teetered on the brink of
nuclear war. It is undeniable that the moral
authority of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the
only cities to suffer an atomic bombing,
and tireless appeals from hibakusha and others
around the world stopped the nuclear powers
from pushing the button.
They say it's rare in the natural world for
a species to drive itself to extinction.
Animals certainly don't feed on their own
kind. If left to their own devices, humans
seem to have some sort of genetic flaw that
causes us to choose paths of self-destruction.
We must awaken from this idiocy. Thus, I
agree with the proposal in Mayor Tadatoshi
Akiba's Peace Declaration for a genuine "reconciliation"
between humankind and the science and technology.
He stated that "Hiroshima wishes
to make a new start as a model city demonstrating
the use of science and technology for human
purposes" and to "serve as a mediator
actively creating reconciliation by helping
to resolve conflict and animosity."
I wish the mayor had made more specific proposals
in this regard, but the gist of Nagasaki
Peace Declaration does ask the nuclear-weapon
states to "enter into negotiations for
a total ban on nuclear weapons." Based
on the intentions expressed by both mayors,
I propose that on the first A-bomb Day of
the first year of the next millennium, Hiroshima
City hold a nuclear-weapon state summit here
to discuss nuclear abolition. Would this
not befit our role as international mediator?
It could even be two or five years from now.
The Foreign Ministry would be involved, of
course, and the World Conference of Cities
for Peace through Inter-city Solidarity (an
organization spearheaded by Hiroshima City).
Let us explore together how we could mobilize
scholars, cultural icons, religious leaders
and other influential persons in the nuclear-weapon
states to gain the consent of their prime
ministers and presidents.
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