Hibakusha call for elimination of nuclear weapons

April 26, 2018

Hiroshima hibakusha call for nuclear abolition

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180426_04/

Atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima have appealed for speeding up the effort to eliminate nuclear weapons.

They gave a speech to state representatives at a preparatory meeting in Geneva on Wednesday for the 2020 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.

80-year-old Michiko Kodama told the audience about her war-time experience. Then she said when the United Nations adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons last year, survivors were elated that the door to abolishing nuclear arms has opened at long last.

But she noted that a long and winding road lies ahead as nuclear powers and their allies have not joined the treaty.

Kodama said mankind has come to a fork in the road: Will we protect this blue planet Earth, or choose the path of destruction?

She called on nations that have signed the NPT to swiftly and completely destroy their nuclear weapons.

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui also took the podium. He said promoting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will be an important guidepost for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue stressed that the nuclear weapons ban treaty and the NPT go hand in hand. He said cities that have endured an atomic bombing are fully convinced that the nuclear ban treaty is a global norm.