Statement to Commemorate the 1st Anniversary of the TPNW
Today marks the first anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) coming into force. As of today, 86 countries have signed it, with 59 having ratified it. 76 years ago, the city of Hiroshima was annihilated by the US Military attack. Casualties were not only Japanese, but there were many people from abroad exposed to radiation and were killed: those from the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan, both colonized by Japan, Chinese forced to work in Japan, American POWs, and Southeast Asians studying in Japan due to Japan’s policy. Direct exposure to radiation was caused when the bomb was detonated, but even after that, residual radiation affected people who entered the city after the bombing. Radioactive fallout reached those caught in Black Rain more than 30 kilometers from the hypocenter. Estimated fatalities at the end of the year 1945 numbered approximately 140 thousand, followed by deaths from leukemia and cancers until the present day. Nagasaki was bombed three days later and suffered similar damage. In March 1954, a Japanese tuna fishing boat (Lucky Dragon No. 5) was exposed to radiation emitted from a hydrogen bomb test (1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima Bomb) at Bikini Atoll approx. 160km from the atoll. This incident triggered the movement in Japan against A- and H-bombs by hibakusha who rose up saying, “We know through experience that we must save humans from this crisis.” One result of the movement was medical care to Hiroshima and Nagasaki hibakusha started twelve years after the bombing. In July 2017, the TPNW was adopted at the United Nations conference and was enacted on January 22nd, 2021. Nuclear weapons are now illegal by international law. This helped people around the world understand the inhumane consequences of nuclear weapons suffered by A-bomb hibakusha and nuclear victims throughout the world as well. However, the five nuclear powers delivered a joint statement on January 3rd this year that a nuclear war cannot be won, without any mention of when and how to reduce more than the current 13,000 nuclear weapons, and when and how they will perform and complete their duty of nuclear disarmament (Article VI of the NPT). Since there has been a definite agreement among the member states to conclude the duty in previous Review Conferences, the TPNW is ‘an important treaty that could be regarded as a final passage to a world without nuclear weapons’ (Prime Minister Kishida), and as such, the nuclear weapon states cannot be excused from their duty to sign and ratify the Treaty. We oppose the nuclear weapon states delaying the abolition of such weapons. We demand that the Government of Japan sign and ratify the Treaty immediately. We must also make a joint effort with global hibakusha who wish to see a world without nuclear weapons.
January 22, 2022 Shuichi Adachi President Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA)
HIROSHIMA ISSUES A HEARTY WELCOME TO THE CONFIRMATION OF THE NUCLEAR BAN TREATY COMING INTO EFFECT
On October 24, it was confirmed that the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons would enter into force on January 22 2021, ninety days after the 50th country Honduras submitted its ratification of the treaty.
Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA) welcomes the event from the bottom of our heart.
For 75 years since the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the citizens have continued their appeal to the world for the abolition of nuclear weapons. These cities experienced the most inhumane atrocities of indiscriminate attack, in which those forced to come from the Korean Peninsula and POWs of the Allied Forces also lost their lives.
The Treaty, concerned about the inhumane consequences caused by using such weapons, makes nuclear weapons illegal and prohibits signatory countries from developing, testing, manufacturing, stockpiling, transferring, and using and threatening to use nuclear weapons. It also requires the damage caused to victims and the environment, as a result of testing, or use of nuclear weapons, to be remedied and given assistance and compensation. The Treaty thus attempts to eliminate all the risks that remain as long as nuclear weapons exist.
Sharing the hibakusha’s wish that the same experience shall never be repeated, we have worked to ban nuclear weapons legally in cooperation with many countries, as well as the United Nations, the International Red Cross, the Red Crescent, and NGOs such as ICAN. The fact that the Treaty is now ready to be effective is historically significant because it is the result of these activities and it marks a point at which we can make a new start.
The current state of affairs surrounding nuclear arsenals is in danger of leading to nuclear war. America and Russia have made several nuclear disarmament agreements null and void and are developing smaller tactical nuclear warheads, enabling them to be used in actual warfare. This must be blocked and stopped globally.
The Japanese Government, under the American nuclear umbrella, has not signed the Treaty asserting that it weakens Japan’s security.
However, depending upon the nuclear umbrella presupposes that nuclear weapons may be used. Using just one of these weapons could lead to chain-reaction detonation of nuclear warheads. It is feared, by the same token, that nuclear warfare might cause global climate change which endangers the very existence of humans, as well as all living things. This year, the coronavirus pandemic has claimed the lives of more than one million people (as of Oct. 27). Strengthening military power does not save people’s lives.
About seventy percent of Japanese people agree that the government should join the Treaty.
We demand that the Japanese Government sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as soon as possible.
We, the people of Hiroshima, are filled with hope and announce our heartfelt welcome of the epoch-making Treaty.
We hereby express that we will focus our efforts toward the achievement of the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA)
October 25, 2020
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