LDP lawmaker seeks rational talks with antinuke group
By Kakumi Kobayashi, HIROSHIMA, Aug. 2 Kyodo - Ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker Taro Kono believes the time has finally come for Japan's antinuclear movement to drop its ideological differences to achieve its common objective of nuclear disarmament.
''I hope we can discuss issues based on the same background information and statistics,'' said Kono, who was invited to serve as a panelist in Saturday's conference by its organizers who have in the past maintained close ties with opposition parties.
The 37-year-old son of Foreign Minister Yohei Kono describes himself as a ''lonely'' LDP member working for nuclear disarmament and a reduction in the number of nuclear power plants in Japan through the promotion of alternative energy sources.
In a recent interview with Kyodo News, Kono, a House of Representatives member, said that in many conflicts he has witnessed different sides exchange opinions based on biased statistics and information.
''I hope to come across with a realistic standpoint in my meetings with people in Hiroshima,'' he said.
''It's almost meaningless to hold gatherings and discussions only with people who share your opinion. If you want to change something, for example, to pass a law, you need partners in the ruling camp,'' Kono said.
Leaders of the Japanese Congress Against A and H Bombs (Gensuikin), known for its close relationship with the former main opposition Japan Socialist Party (JSP) -- the predecessor of the Social Democratic Party -- invited Kono to the group's annual gathering in the city devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb Aug. 6, 1945.
''Now is the time various opinions need to be heard at a gathering, regardless of political orientation,'' said Koei Sato, secretary general of the Tokyo-based congress.
In an April-May U.N. meeting to review the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the world's nuclear powers agreed for the first time to seek an ''unequivocal undertaking'' to eliminate their nuclear arsenals.
But Sato admits that the antinuclear movement has been drawing less attention among Japanese than before, adding that his organization is still searching for a way to successfully promote its activities in the next century.
''Some antinuclear activists obsessed with ideology are quick to say, 'We should do this' or 'We shouldn't do that' while ignoring such real issues that Japan is protected by a so-called nuclear umbrella (provided by the United States),'' Kono said.
Japan's antinuclear movement dates back to 1954, when 23 crew members of the Japanese tuna fishing boat Fukuryu Maru (Lucky Dragon) No. 5 were exposed to radiation during a U.S. nuclear test in the Pacific's Bikini Atoll.
One of the crew members subsequently died apparently due to the radiation.
Antinuclear activists were backed by opposition parties such as the JSP and the Japanese Communist Party.
In the 1960s, following a series of political conflicts, the movement split along Cold War lines into two groups -- the Socialists-backed Gensuikin and the Communists-backed Japan Council Against A and H Bombs. The two groups reconciled in 1977, but split again in 1986.
''I don't think differences in discussions over nuclear disarmament and the scrapping of nuclear power plants should be regarded as political conflicts,'' Kono said, adding that such objectives are a common desire of the public.
In a Kyodo News survey conducted in July, a 71-year-old survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki blamed the fall in support for the antinuclear movement on politics.
''The small number of people who connect the peace movement to politics has kept ordinary people away from such activities,'' he said.
==Kyodo
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