On the brink of a new nuclear crisis, Hiroshima marked the 53rd Anniversary of the A-bombing. With the recent nuclear tests by India and Pakistan, a slow moving progress on nuclear abolishment since the end of Cold War has been shaken to its core. But why don't we take such a disadvantage as an opportunity? We can make a change by proposing realistic and decisive action programs in order to get rid of impediments before we reach our goal, the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Just then, Geneva Disarmament Conference (consists of 61 countries) has adopted to set up a special committee to start the negotiation for the Cut-off Treaty (prohibits production of nuclear fission materials for nuclear weapons). It was adopted because Pakistan, which used to oppose the treaty, changed its policy. One step was made for nuclear proliferation. There are no shortcuts to achieve nuclear abolition. We must take importance in piling up a one-sure step in order to reach our goal.
The morning edition of the Chugoku Shimbun ran a special article introduced mainly 136 of essays written by those who experienced the A-bombing in 1945. This was one of the essays collected by Hiroshima municipal government in 1950 and never have been published before.
"At that moment, my front view immediately turned all yellow. It comes to think such a moment was a beginning step for the tragedy of civilization", written Hatsue Higashi (age 74, maiden name was Hatsue Baba). When the bomb was dropped, she was a young teacher, fresh out of school and exposed to radiation where student mobilization was held. As she predicted, the world has been repeating much tragedy since then and still now it looks like it is very much like on a brink of making the same mistake.
Can it be our common theme to decide where to start? When we tackle this problem, numbers of people will work from different fields with various measures. So firstly, we should have a fundamental understanding that Japan is the only country to experience the atomic bombing before we take an action.
Among all the measures, the first one we should think is the government policy. Japan has always kept the United States in mind when it dealt with the anti-nuclear policy. Despite a consensus that the U.S. nuclear umbrella with the security treaty has protected the country, Japan had never has taken a particular position.
After the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan, it seems there are more constructive opinions and actions within the government. Japan is planning to launch "an emergency action conference on nuclear proliferation and disarmament issues" with scholars from home and overseas on Aug. 30 in Tokyo. Although the purpose of this conference is to indicate direction of nuclear proliferation and disarmament, it seems like it won't be able to do more than what the similar conferences proposed in the past.
With a guidance of the government, Hiroshima Peace Institute, Japan Research Institute for International Affairs and other organizations related to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will sponsor the conference.
Within two or three years, Hiroshima Peace Institute is scheduled to indicate a clear direction of urgent measures and stages for nuclear disarmament in order to make abolition of nuclear arms a reality. It is expected to hold conferences to discuss about these issues but since the Ministry of Foreign Affairs showed disapproval of having such a discussion, the expected result of the conference is more likely to fall short of our expectation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs showed such an attitude because the conference deals with issues that are out of step with the United States defense policy.
It reminds us of a certain incident. Hiroshima City tried to hold the A-bomb exhibition at the UN's lobby hall in New York 20 some years ago. Hiroshima City tried to negotiate with the UN to hold the exhibition, at first, by asking the Japan's representative to the UN and other top officials of the UN sent from Japan but they didn't take the Hiroshima's request into consideration at all. The Japanese government has always attached importance to the relationship with the United States and it hasn't changed since then.
The Minister Masahiko Koumura of Foreign Affairs said in his statement, "I'll prepare for a new resolution on ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons, which is hopefully more forwarding and I'll present it to the UN general meeting scheduled in this fall." This statement was made when he was newly appointed to the current position.
Proposals in the past didn't mention any concrete plans for the elimination of nuclear weapons. They fell into abstract arguments. Although they were adopted by the council for four consecutive years until last year but they are not quite effective. As for a resolution to initiate immediate negotiations for a treaty to achieve the total elimination of nuclear weapons, which Malaysia has been proposing for the last two years, Japan has been abstaining from voting because the government thinks that the United States will not favor Japan's approval ballot.
We hope the Minister Koumura can apply the art of resuscitation in this situation and persuade the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Hiroshima's mission is not so easy as well. Hiroshima Peace Institute aims to present schemes and measures to establish logical structure and proposals in order to achieve the elimination of nuclear weapons. They came up with following four categories last month, which are the themes of their research. 1). To propose a process for the elimination of nuclear weapons. 2). To propose measures to aim at detente, confidence building and disarmament. 3). The UN's PKO and humanitarian support. 4). Examination of a database on disarmament.
Among the eight itemized themes including supervising nuclear disarmament situation, they made their long-term project clear. We have great expectations for each item. But we face the reality that we lack conviction to other countries regarding the elimination of nuclear weapons. Japan has nuclear umbrella from the United States and that is the basic cause of our weakness. We feel that we need to establish a theory to convince the world and change the trend of world opinion which may go in the opposite direction. In order to convince the government, can this be added to their research item?
Dispersing extensively the realities of the A-bombing to the world is also still more important. Hiroshima City has been holding the A-bomb awareness exhibition to tell what happened to Hiroshima through pictures and artifacts. To take the 50th Anniversary of the A-bombing an opportunity, the City has been holding the exhibition twice a year since then in Europe, America and India. There have been quite a few photo exhibitions including the ones held by private organizations. But it is still one of many. There are only five prefectures and seven cities which held the exhibitions in Japan. This type of event should originally be the role of the government. But we feel keenly the need of the exhibition promoted from home first then abroad with collaboration of private organizations.
The '94 Asian Games was such a good opportunity for the citizens. The spread of the movement called "One Community Center To Support One Country" was more than expected. There are quite a few groups today that make certain progress regarding international relations and giving aid to other countries with only about ten members. Grassroots and volunteer activities with young students put forth surely and now are growing.
But the road leading to the elimination of nuclear weapons is yet bumpy. We should think positively and continue to work on it so that Hiroshima can pull the strings of the government. Moreover, we must urge the people of the world to pave the rough road that leads to the elimination of nuclear weapons.
