Statement to Commemorate the Second Anniversary of the TPNW
Two years ago today the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) came into effect. 92 countries have so far signed the Treaty and 68 have ratified it.
In February, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and has threatened to use nuclear weapons. We are faced with the crisis of a nuclear war. The hibakusha and citizens of Hiroshima appeal that such weapons must never be used. Nuclear warfare has neither winners nor losers and inevitably leads to the destruction of the earth. We demand the war which continues to kill so many innocent people be stopped and ended urgently.
77 years ago, Hiroshima was annihilated by the American nuclear attack. The victims included not just Japanese people. People from the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan, both under Japan’s colonial rule, Chinese laborers made to come to Japan by force, American POWs, and Southeast Asians and Chinese people invited to study in Japan by the national policy were also indiscriminately killed when they were exposed to the atomic bomb. Not only the direct power of the bomb (heat rays, blast and initial radiation), but also residual radiation caused people to develop illnesses after they entered the city later. Radioactive fallout even reached areas farther than 30 kilometers. After the war ended, it was estimated that about 140,000 people of Hiroshima lost their lives by the atomic bombing before the end of the year 1945. Many survivors have died of leukemia or cancer. Nagasaki was also bombed by a nuclear weapon and experienced a similar situation.
The first meeting of the States Parties was held in July last year and the Vienna Declaration was adopted. Problems to be solved include how the Treaty should be made universal and how global nuclear survivors should be aided. We hope that the second meeting to be held in November this year deepens debates on these matters.
Last August, the NPT Review conference met but there was no forward movement and no documents were adopted, even though the previous meetings in 2000 and 2010 had confirmed that Article 6 of the Treaty declairing the States Parties have the duty of complete nuclear disarmament (=prohibition of nuclear weapons). This is an extremely regrettable situation. It is not forgivable that nuclear states should turn their backs on signing and ratifying the Treaty, which complements the NPT.
We protest against nuclear powers postponing abolition of nuclear weapons for security reasons. The Japanese Government should sign and ratify the Treaty as soon as possible. We will try to realize the nuclear-free world working in cooperation with global nuclear survivors.
January 22nd, 2023
Shuichi Adachi
President of the Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA)
※この英文は「核兵器禁止条約発効２年にあたっての声明」英訳です。