August 2nd saw the opening of both the Japan Gensuikyo's 2002 World Conference to Abolish A and H Bombs and Gensuikin Japan's 57 Years Later-World Conference to Abolish A and H Bombs. In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. in 2001, discussion centered around international cooperation to abolish nuclear weapons, along with the problem of A-bomb survivors living overseas and other matters.

Gensuikyo's world conference began in Hiroshima Kosei Nenkin Kaikan (Welfare Annuities Hall) in Naka-ku, Hiroshima City. Rita Lasar (70), who lost her younger brother in the September 11 terrorist attacks, told an audience of around 260 persons, "If we don't find non-violent solutions to terrorist attacks, we simply pile sorrow on sorrow."

Lasar is a member of September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, a group comprised of family members of victims of the September 11 attacks who oppose military attacks against Afghanistan. Lasar described the group's efforts to create a fund to aid Afghani citizens who have suffered U.S. air attacks. She said, "We need to find common ground with people around the world who have been victimized by war-driven violence."

With around 60 persons from 24 countries in attendance, grassroots groups from six countries reported on their activities.

The Gensuikyo international conference continues through the 4th. Its Hiroshima conference starts that day and ends on the 6th, and its Nagasaki conference will be held on the 8th and 9th.

Participating in the Gensuikin international conference that in Yokohama were about 150 peace activists from overseas and Japanese academics researching disarmament issues.

Kevin Martin, executive director for Peace Action, a U.S. group working for peace and disarmament, criticized U.S. nuclear policy after the September 11 attacks. "What we need to do is eliminate poverty and other problems at the root of terrorist attacks. We must push for non-violent policies."

Mitsuru Kurosawa, professor at the Osaka School of International Public Policy and Faculty of Law, Osaka University, criticized Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda's statement that Japan may review its three non-nuclear principles, saying, "Fukuda doesn't recognize that nuclear disarmament is at the heart of Japan's diplomacy." Kurosawa advocated establishing a legal basis for the three non-nuclear principles. Achin Vanaik, a representative of the Indian nuclear disarmament movement, called for a conference among peace activists to discuss making South Asia a nuclear-free zone.

Gensuikin will move its world conference to Hiroshima for the 4th to the 6th and to Nagasaki for the 7th to the 9th.