By Joseph Gerson
Preliminary Comments
The Treaty on Prevention of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) Review Conference will be held at the UN in early March, and the NPT Review Conference will be held in New York from April 27 to May 22. Gensuikyo will likely be present at the former and hopes to bring 100 people to the latter, in part to support the hibakusha and to be in New York for the first week of the RevCon. Gensuikyo is looking forward to me bringing US organizations together to begin consultations and planning for the NPT RevCon. I will begin in September and look to people in New York to carry the greatest weight and to engage others from across the country. SPARK, from South Korea, which will be holding an international tribunal on the A-bombings plans to bring about 70 people to New York. For the past year or so, I have been clear with them that I do not plan to make significant commitments to this project. (Their plan has been to sue the US in the US courts, and I have thought that there is no chance that they will get a significant hearing in the courts.) Their campaign will help to illuminate the realities of many Korean A-bomb victims.
CPDCS representatives Nick Rabb and Ann Wright have written excellent articles, the contents of which I won’t attempt to repeat. Engaging Hiroshima and the Hibakusha with an open mind and heart is a life-changing experience. Nick went deep in his article published by Common Dreams. And Ann, as is her want, wrote a very upbeat article about the Japanese and international forces pressing for nuclear weapons abolition.
Also to note, as in past years, I was asked to serve as one of four chairs of the International Conference, the others being Cora Fabros of the Philippine movement and IPB, the president of the Japan Teachers’ Union, and the president of the Japan Peace Committee. It is largely a ceremonial position which cuts me off a little from international conference participants as I can’t mix as easily as I’d like, and as you will read, delivered me a speakers’ time limit headache.
Reflections & Emotions
I have returned to Hiroshima and Nagasaki almost every August, since 1984 for the annual World Conference against A & H bombs. Fifty and more years ago, when I was an anti-war organizer during the Vietnam War in the U.S. and later in Europe, the World Conference was an almost mythic event. I couldn’t imagine ever participating in it. Life deals us the unexpected. In 1984, after leading the successful resistance to the campaign launched by President Reagan, Senator Kennedy, and the Pentagon to transform Boston Harbor into a nuclear weapons base, I was invited – all expenses paid! – to give a 5-minute speech at the World Conference. Fortunately, I was smart enough to understand that it wasn’t about me. I was invited as a symbol of the possibility of prevailing in order to encourage the Japanese movement.
Joining that conference, engaging deeply in the pain and abuse of the Hibakusha, learning about what the U.S. Declaration of Independence two centuries earlier had described as the “abuses and usurpations” of the presence of foreign troops during peace time, I also had to drink in testimonies from Japanese, land owners from Guam and others about the many way their lives were tormented by hundreds of U.S. bases across the region. (In time this fueled my book The Sun Never Sets…) And there were the life affirming spirits of resistance, community, music and art.
All of that was overwhelming. My way of processing it was to write a much too long poem that expressed my innermost feelings, and the waking kaleidoscope dream images of peace cranes, with all of their healing colors.
But you can’t go home again. Over the years in the United States and internationally I have heard and provided platforms for Hibakusha to share their excruciating stories and their appeal that “Human beings and nuclear weapons cannot coexist.” Maybe it was the second time that I was at the World Conference and listening to an older Japanese man deliver a geopolitical analysis, that I thought that I could do that, maybe even better. So, the third time around that’s what I did. It was appreciated, and I’ve been invited back year after year. My engagements led to my writing With Hiroshima Eyes, published in 1995.
Over the years I have brought a dozen or more young U.S organizers to learn from Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Hibakusha. This year I was wise enough to invite the sensitive and brilliant Nick Rabb and had the gift of witnessing some of how he processed his baptism by the Hiroshima fire.
A callused veteran of the World Conference, and still amazed by having been invited to join Nobel Hidankyo’s Nobel Peace Prize delegation, I am rarely able to project as deeply into the Hibakusha’s experience as I once did. An exception this year was what for me was the most moving event of the 80th year anniversary: the extended on stage interview with Tanaka Terumi, a Nagasaki hibakusha I have known for many years. Twenty-five years ago, I toured him across New England and am still ripped apart by the memory of him asking me “Who will remember us when we are gone?” The Nobel Peace Prize, for which he was the lead Nihon Hidankyo delegation representative, answered that question. (That tour led to the Vermont state legislature become the first in the nation to appeal for a nuclear weapons-free United States.)
I have heard Tanaka-sensei speak many times, but this time was different. A modest man, he went into much greater detail of what he experienced in August 1945, the relatives he lost, the process of building pyres and holding and cremating his relatives bodies amidst the nuclear desert, and his descriptions of the suffering of the survivors. He reviewed the U.S. military occupation’s imposed silence and censorship of any discussions about the A-bombings, the isolation of the Hibakusha – in part due to popular fears that radioactive diseases were contagious, and the Japanese government’s disregard of Hibakusha and its insistence that all Japanese – including Hibakusha – must share the burden of wartime defeat.
A remarkably modest and composed man, having gone so deep to relive and report his experiences, this time I could see Tanaka-san’s tears as he relived these memories. They also brought shared tears to my eyes.
I had one other deeply emotional engagement in Hiroshima. It came in a conversation with Farish Ardabili-Farshi, a gentle man and one of two representatives of the Swedish Peace & Arbitration Committee (an organization I worked with when I worked for WRI in Europe). He comes from an extraordinarily elite Iranian family, militarily, financially, and politically during the Shah’s rule. But between 1982 and 1984 he was a soldier in the Iraq-Iran war. His unit was composed of 250 soldiers, and he and one other man were the unit’s only survivors. I later learned that he still carries shrapnel in his body. He told me that when he spoke to families of those in his unit who were killed, they asked why he was still alive. Between that and the Islamic Revolution, he sought asylum in Sweden, where he draws on his trauma as a social worker and a dedicated peace activist.
And there were the quiet and depths of the Hiroshima Peace Park at night.
Framing the World Conference and Japanese Context
Following the World Conference, I had a day in Tokyo that began with a l tour of an Edo era Japanese garden with my good and old friend Hiroshi Taka, the former Secretary General of Gensuikyo, co-chair of the World Conference, and an informal mentor. He remains an anchor and moral and political foundation of Gensuikyo. He explained to me that this year’s World Conference was organized to build and model support in these increasingly dangerous times, on the pillars and models of collaborations between sympathetic governments, peace movements’ leaders, and the grassroots to help generate bottom-up pressure for peace and nuclear disarmament. He added that Jeremy Corbyn added the dimension of the struggle against poverty.
Remarking on the rise of Sanseito, an extreme right-wing Japanese political party modeled after Trump/MAGA rule, that had the most growth in the July upper house election, Taka commented that rather than face the shame of Japan’s brutal wartime rule in conquered nations, the right replaced shame with hate. Taka also spoke about the importance of fear, as in Europe, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and fear being an important force moving Japanese politics to the right.
The World Conference, begun in 1955 following the U.S. military occupation and is organized in several segments: an international conference, a Hiroshima resolution drafting committee, and World Conference rallies and workshops. Unlike past years, in addition to the 7,000 – 8,000 Japanese activists who joined the conference from across Japan, Hibakusha and current and former diplomats and parliamentarians from Egypt, Germany, Britian (including Jeremy Corbyn the former Labor Party leader,) and Cuba were given pride of place. There were huge delegations from Movement de la Paix and the CGT union in France, and from SPARK (Solidarity for Peace and Reunification in Korea) and the Korean Metal Workers Union – a measure of the increasing collaboration between the Japanese and Korean nuclear abolition and peace movements. In addition to our CPDCS delegation of three (Nick Rabb, Ann Wright, and me) Americans included Nino Burjanadze, a young Georgian-American for Peace Action in New York (We hope that she is not deported by customs control on her return to the U.S. via Georgia), and two representatives from the United Electrical Workers Union, which has strong ties with Zenroren, the second largest Japanese labor confederation and a pillar of Gensuikyo. There was also a somewhat larger (4 members) Vietnamese government-related NGO delegations.
Speech Summaries
The international conference, and the organizer’s address – given by Noguchi Kunizaku a Hibakusha – frame the World Conference. He extolled the nuclear-free Japan movement, gave the first of many accolades to Nihon Hidankyo for being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, condemned the military buildup under Prime Minister Ishiba and rising military expenditures worldwide, and he honored international movements for nuclear weapons abolition, opposing military bases, and the climate crisis (the latter being a relatively new development for Gensuikyo that Reiner Braun and I played a role in initiating several years ago.) In his speech, and in many others, he decried the current military to military and nuclear-to-nuclear confrontations and the undermining of the UN Charter and international humanitarian law. He called for an immediate and permanent Gaza ceasefire and condemned the “barbaric” acts of the U.S. and Israeli bombings of Iran’s nuclear facilities. He and many others celebrated Nihon Hidankyo being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and its role in creating the nuclear taboo which is increasingly jeopardized. His speech and many others condemned the “myth” of nuclear deterrence. In addition to condemning “extended deterrence” (the nuclear umbrella which is the cornerstone of Japan’s military and foreign policies,) he voiced – as did several others – deep concerns about U.S.-Japanese discussions about possible “nuclear sharing.”
His speech and most others failed to address what I termed (from my track II process) the “three scorpions in a bottle” danger. In only a few talks were references made to the “nuclear buildup in East Asia (China and North Korea.) But China’s nuclear buildup cannot be ignored for long.
The opening session of the international conference was centered on the Hibakusha’s suffering and courageous demands for nuclear weapons aboltion.
Nihon Hidankyo’s board member Hiroshi Kanamoto, like most Japanese speakers, condemned Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, and the US attack on Iran, all of which have weakened the nuclear taboo and made the world much more dangerous. As in most speeches, he extolled and called for support for the TPNW (including urging Japan to sign it) and called for strengthening the Japanese and international abolition movements.
He was followed by Park Jung-Soon, a Korean Hibakusha, whose family moved to Hiroshima during Japan’s colonization of Korea. A child at the time, she described how her mother had saved her, the horrors they had witnessed, and their return to Korean – where the A-bombings were celebrated as ending 35 years of brutal Japanese military, economic, and social colonization. In Korea, they had no medical or financial support. Her mother had a still birth, and they were marginalized as A-bomb victims, with people fearing imagined contagious radiation diseases. Aware of the importance of second generation Korean hibakusha to speak out, she is speaking out after many years of silence and will testify at the People’s Tribunal on the Atomic Bombings to be held in New York at the time of the 2026- NPT Review.
During the Vietnam War, Hibakusha identified with Vietnamese victims of the U.S. bombings, and many supported the governments of North Vietnam and the National Liberation Front. In the years that have followed, the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin have always been given time to speak along with the Hibakusha in the World Conference. They are also understood to be victims of weapons of mass destruction in the Hiroshima Declaration. This time their delegation was led by Dr. Pham Xuan Hung, the vice-president of the association. (His presence brought to mind my hosting Dr. Tung, in about1978, when he met with doctors at Harvard Medical School and others. As a doctor with the NLF in Vietnam’s jungles, he was the first person to understand and warn about dioxin’s carcinogenic impacts.) Dr. Pham described the agent orange devastation of 4.8 million hectares of forest, the exposure of 4.8 million Vietnamese to dioxin, and its impacts through many generations with “decedents, tens of thousands of children…born dead or sick, abnormalities, disabilities completely or partially paralyzed…passed down to the 4th generation.” In personal conversations, he extolled the US veterans and others in the U.S. who are helping to clear dioxin poisoned areas. With China in mind, but unspoken, he repeated the importance of very positive U.S.-Vietnamese relations. He called for “the world to unite and act against all forms of use of Mass Destruction Weapons for a peaceful world without nuclear weapons, without Agent Orange/dioxin.” I felt badly that I have not been able to do more in the aftermath of this gross crime against humanity.
The second session of the international conference was more freewheeling. My keynote talk focused on the background and crimes of the A-bombings, the increasing nuclear dangers, the dynamics of the tectonic geopolitical dangers and wars, and U.S commemorations – especially in Boston – on this 80th anniversary.
Carloyn Lucas, a vice-president of CND in Britain and a former Green Party member of parliament, gave exceptional and focused talks in the international conference and at the Nagasaki rally. Among the points that she made were that the nuclear states have amassed the “equivalent firepower of 145,000 Hiroshima bombs, that with the expiration of the New START Treaty in February 2026, there will be no limits on the nuclear powers arsenals for the first time in half a century, that we are now in the midst of the greatest increase in spending for non-nuclear weapons since 1962, and that Britain is spending an unconscionable !5 billion to upgrade its nuclear weapons and delivery systems. She took apart the dangers of deterrence theory, and pressed the importance of the TPNW and the growth of our movements.
After praising the Japanese peace movement, Roland Nivet of Movement de la Paix in France condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Gaza genocide, and the ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He condemned Trump’s “peace through force” and NATO’s arms buildup. Much of his talk focused on the hopes inspired by the Helsinki post-cold war vision of common security and the importance of creating a new Helsinki process. He was also proud of the French movement hosting a tour of Nihon Hidankyo hibakusha following the award of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Lee Jun Kyu, a South Korean peace-oriented scholar and important Gensuikyo partner for at least a decade, began with an appreciation of the TPNW. but warned the “the world is so turbulent that we cannot see which direction it is heading for.” He referenced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its alliance with North Korea as forces leading the transition from U.S. unipolarity to a multipolar order and the U.S.-Chinese competition for spheres of influence. Like me and a number of others, he referenced the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday clock being set at 89 seconds to midnight, the closest ever to nuclear annihilation. After speaking about South Korea’s political turmoil, he also said that “’Trump’s America is running out of control has posed difficult challenges to South Korea and the international community. It is not just about tariffs. Trump’s obsession with strength and money is transforming the U.S. into a predatory state” that plunders profits and resources nationally and internationally.: He also condemned Trump’s demanding increased military budgets. Jun Kyu also focused on North Korea “upgrading its nuclear forces”, its revision of its constitution to reaffirm that North Korea is a nuclear weapons state. He also referenced fears, and the DPRK’s new policy that turns away from renunciation and insists that North and South are “two hostile states.”
In the Q & A session Jun-Kyu said that ROK-DPRK dialog, which is wanted by the new ROK government, could be restarted by means of an improved offer from the United States and Japan. He added that the DPRK’s resistance to renewed dialog could end when the Ukraine War ends and Russia no longer needs the DPRK. He also explained that in the “123 Revolution of Light” that ousted the would-be dictator Yeoul, 70% of those who protested were women in their 20s and 30s, in large measure due to the impacts of neoliberalism and government attacks on gender equality on Korean women.
Yasui Masekazu, Gensuikyo’s general secretary, gave a speech with most of his points reiterating those of Naguchi’s opening speech, and he outlined Gensuikyo’s future priorities which are detailed in the Hiroshima Declaration.
Ann Wright’s speech was much more of an encouraging, movement building contribution than was mine. After expressing profound apologies for the war crimes of the atomic bombings and of nuclear weapons testing by the U.S. and other nuclear powers, she celebrated the TPNW and stressed the need for popular pressure to get governments – those who have signed but not ratified the Treaty and non-signers – to ratify the treaty. She spoke at length about McGovern’s House Res 317, its Back from the Brink content, and her Congressional Representative’s support for the bill. She closed with an encouraging list of popular actions and resistance, beginning with Boston commemoration and Ben Cohen’s Up in Arms initiative, as well as civil disobedience actions in the U.S. and Europe.
“Ambassador” Mohamed Ezzeldine Abel Moneim, the former Assistant Egyptian minister of foreign affairs and a professor, was given prominent roles in the conference. In the international conference, with a focus on Gaza, he spoke about the weapons of mass destruction capacities of non-nuclear weapons and the blurring of the distinction between nuclear and non-nuclear weapons. (I thought that he was a bit off in this regard.) He also spoke about the “devastating radiological effect of depleted uranium” weapons in the context of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In this talk, his poorly received and extended special forum in which he spoke at length about Egyptian-Gaza diplomatic history, and at the closing rally, he stressed the importance of a two-state Israeli-Palestinian peace which many of us believe may no longer be possible. In the Q & A session he expounded at length about the misconceptions that fuel commitments to “total war, which of course help to fuel preparations for nuclear war.
In a personal conversation, Abdel Moneim talked about the increasing power of the Gulf States, regionally and internationally. Among others, he pointed to their financing of an Ethiopian dam on the Nile which poses a threat to Egypt and explained that the Egyptian government now jumps to the tune of the Gulf states and the IMF.
Cora Fabros, co-president of IPB, gave a speech written by Sean Conner, IPB’s executive director in Berlin. It began with concerns about nuclear weapons proliferation and U.S. and Russian deployments of nuclear weapons respectively in Europe and Belarus. The speech was long in its description and advocacy of common security. Given the speech’s length, Cora and I laughed when, serving as chair, I had to tell her that her time was up and that participants would have to read much of the speech.
Abacá Anjin-Maddison, the former senator representing the people of Ronglap who were forced to move to Ebeye after the Bikini “test,” said that only nine of the Rongelap hibakusha still live. She referenced the 4.1 program in which Marshall Islands hibakusha were used as guinea pigs. and she spoke about the recent threats of the rising seas to the Marshall Islands and an encouraging campaign of economic development.
There were several talks from the floor, and the session was carried over to the next day/ Unfortunately I was still in the chair when we resumed. Gensuikyo had promised that a New Zealand woman (with an uninspiring speech) and 10 people who had registered to speak all had to be accommodated within an hour. That placed me in the unhappy role of being a stringent timekeeper – no way to win friends! But I had the sympathy of many.
Workshops
There were 10 workshops in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The first government & civil society workshop had about 100 people. I gave each of the government officials a copy of our Common Security in the Indo-Pacific Report. Jeremy Corbyn, an excellent and focused speaker, explained that this was his first time in Japan, but that he had engaged with Hiroshima as a teen via reading Brighter Than 1000 Suns, which in turn led him to CND. He spoke about the value of arms control diplomacy following the Cuban Missile Crisis and the importance of the TPNW. He then addressed the Ukraine War, opposing but understanding Russia’s invasion and stressing the need for a ceasefire and the possibility that the war could escalate to nuclear war. He strongly condemned the nuclear power Israel’s Gaza genocide and the need to recognize Palestinians’ national rights. He also made the connection between increased spending on nuclear weapons, by the UK as well as other governments, with the coming painful reign of austerity.
In Q & A and discussion Jeremy agreed that Netanyahu may have threatened to use nuclear weapons against Iran to lure Trump to attack. He spoke with passion about the 70 million refugees in the world, many fleeing wars.
Marc Botentga is a youngish Belgian Workers Party member of the European Parliament, serious and impressive. He made connections between the Gaza genocide and Hiroshima and spoke of the importance of the lessons of WWII, especially the UN Charter. He termed MAD (mutual assured destruction) as a criminal doctrine. He stressed the importance of the Helsinki process, the role of small countries, and he condemned the Trump 5% military spending increase which will leave the EU with ten times Russia’s military spending. He was critical of plans for new European-wide missile defenses, which ‘subservient’ Europe is mostly accepting. “It’s about old school imperialism.” He decried the undermining of the core U.N. order principles by the West over the past 25 years. He noted that the OECD budget is less than the cost of one F-35. He pledged to fight the continued US deployment of nuclear weapons in Belgium and called for a new Helsinki process.
In Q &A Marc spoke about NATO making Europe totally dependent on the U.S. its use of online influencers, and the need to educate about NATO’s first strike doctrine. He stressed the need to press for Ukraine and Gaza ceasefires, and to communicate hope for a peace economy.
Martin Schridewan is an equally serious and impressive youngish Left Party MEP from Berlin. He referenced the ringing of a peace bell in Berlin every year. He spoke of the global order being in decline, NATO’s power, and Japan breaking with its peace constitution. He also decried the 5% spending increase, which is being done so that Trump and the Pentagon can focus on China. The rich won’t pay more taxes, so this means a new wave of austerity, which in turn will open the way for the far right in Germany. Two-thirds of Germans support the TPNW, and 80% want U.S. nukes out of Germany, but the government is not responsive. As a minority party, the Left Party (De Linke) holds space for change. War, he noted, is good for business, but the Left Party campaigns for a nuke-free Europe and international law as the foundation for a peace order. He also added that his grandfather survived a Nazi concentration camp, and like the Hibakusha his grandfatherinsisted on “Never Again.”
In Q & A Martin said that with fears of Russia, most in Germany want to renew military conscription. And, half of those in De Linke want to send weapons to Ukraine.
Ann Wright repeated the essence of her international conference speech.
Kazuo Shii, the chairman of the Japanese Communist Party, spoke of the world being at an historic crossroads. He referenced the possibility of US-Japan nuclear sharing which Prime Minister Ishiba had advocated (but backed off when he later spoke at the official Hiroshima ceremony.) Shii praised the TPNW as the humanitarian approach, the need to change public opinion in nuclear weapons states, and the dangers of deterrence. He called for a peace order based on the UN charter, condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Gaza genocide, calling for recognition of the Palestinian state, He condemned Japan’s massive military buildup, with 2 % of GDP spending and Trump pressing for 5%. He condemned the rise of the far right in Japan with its xenophobia and related unequal policies. (A government study just reported that Japan’s population declined again this year, this time by 900,000, while 350,000 immigrants came to Japan. They now account for 1% of the population, an enormous change in a country that has long seriously restricted immigration and celebrated the unique heritage of limited blood lines of Japanese. He called for peace through development. The challenge of Japanese xenophobia war was raised by a number of Japanese who spoke from the floor in the course of the World Conference_
Along the way, it was noted that a majority in the Japanese Diet’s constitutional committee favor a change of the constitution (a central ambition being to eliminate Article iX which is the heart of the peace constitution), and the Sanseito (extreme right-wing) member, who previously drafted an alternative constitution chairs the committee.
The second government and civil society workshop began with Austrian Ambassador Thomas Hajnoczi who played significant roles in negotiation of the TPNW. (He is a happy man who always has a smile!) He recalled the collaborations between civil society and governments that led to the TPNW. He decried deterrence theory, saying that luck will run out one day, and that we are at the crossroads. In the Q & A session, he reminded people that Kissinger once said that great powers don’t commit suicide for allies. In a private exchange, he said that Austria’s military buildup is a response to growing fears of Russia, but that Austria is too small to defend itself.
Ambassador Menon stressed that without peace we can’t get abolition. We need to break the vicious circle of insecurity. He spoke at length about the film Hiroshima Mon Amour (which I also found excellent years ago), and he stressed the importance of grassroots pressure to get needed TPNW ratifications.
Cuban ambassador Gisela Garcia gave a strong but standard speech. Mine was a tough one that addressed the three scorpions in a bottle challenge and U.S. responses as it seeks the ability to fight and win a two front nuclear war with Russia and China. In the Q & A session, I stressed that in crisis there is opportunity.
Jeremy Corbyn called for a resumption of the six-party talks to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and pointed to the importance of mobilization for the NPT Review Conference in late April and early May of next year.
In Nagasaki, I repeated my Hiroshima government/civil society talk. In response to a question about why the Japanese government won’t sign the TPNW, I gave a short history lesson about Japanese elite divisions in the 1930s and 40’s, with one faction seeking to expand the Japanese empire with the U.S.-British imperial umbrella and the other seeking the “whole melon.” With assassinations and more, the “militarists” won out and lost the war. During the U.S. military occupation, the constitution was created with deep US involvement. The occupation ended only when the Japanese government secretly signed the military alliance with the U.S. which provided for the continued presence of U.S. bases – including in Tokyo. The U.S. created the Liberal Democratic Party, led by the former within the U.S.-UK imperial umbrella elite faction. The LDP has since ruled almost without interruption (although like many long dominant parties in the West it bases of support are beginning to fragment.) All of this has made Japan a functional U.S. protectorate led by former members of the Japanese elite which is unable to break with the U.S. or to support the TPNW. Few people apparently were aware of this history which was very well received.
Lee Jun-kyu, added a clear description of the U.S. under Trump, “in decline” and a “predatory not hegemonic nation.” He also added his voice to concerns about the U.N. order being in decline. South Korea’s new president, he said, can take some small military de-escalation steps to create an environment leading to renewed dialog with the North. However, the priorities of the new government in Seoul are those of domestically oriented social movements.
Hiroshima Declaration
The Hiroshima Declaration, written by our Japanese hosts, (see attachment) is reviewed and minimally modified in a drafting committee meeting. This year the process was made much easier by an initial draft being emailed to participants in advance of the international conference with an invitation to send suggested modifications. I reworked the English and made a few substantive suggestions. Additional substantive modifications were made by the South Korean and French delegations. The Declaration is then normally hammered through in the closing session of the international conference. This time around, demands from the floor by Ambassador Abdel Moneim and Jeremy Corbyn pressed to go beyond referencing U.N. resolutions on Palestine and to call for creation of a Palestinian state. These interventions were not well received by the (apparently unversed in Middle East political history) chair of the drafting committee. I was reluctant to intervene from the chair, but I did. And perhaps because I am such an old veteran of the World Conference, my intervention urging inclusion of reference to creating a Palestinian state carried the day.
Nagasaki Rallies
Rallies of approximately 3,000 people each were held on August 4, 6, 7 and 9 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Their purpose was primarily to energize and to provide direction for the Japanese abolition and peace movements. Several photos are included in this report to give a sense of its energy. Pride of place was given to Hibakusha testimonies, to foreign ambassadors, to a limited number of international movement representatives, and energetic grassroots reports enhanced by banners. The closing session included a choral performance that honored the life and courage of Chieko Watanabe a Hibakusha who could never walk again and who was one of the founders of the Hibakusha movement. (See her in her photo in a wheelchair. I have written about her in my books and otherwise.) Most moving was Tanaka Terumi’s Hibakusha testimony, followed later by the Chieko Watanabe choral event which was augmented with slides.
Ambassador Kmentt of Austria, with whom I shared a panel in 2014, was among the two or three most central governmental initiators of the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. He began by honoring the Hibakusha, who he termed the “true experts on nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction.” He challenged the myth of deterrence, saying that there is no security via the threat of annihilation. He referenced the importance of common security. He stressed the importance of gaining additional support for the TPNW, “a rare beacon of hope.”
While her words and warning were not unique, Ambassador Melba Pria of Mexicocommunicated outrage at the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bombings and the continuing nuclear threats, and stressed Mexico’s long-standing commitments to creating a nuclear weapons free world. She is a strong and determined woman. You could not help but be moved by the strength of her will and commitment.
Ambassador Abdel Moneim explained to me privately that in the last days of Egyptian dictator Mubarak’s rule, he was invited to be one of four or five senior advisors to Mubarak’s son, who was seen as the dictator’s successor. It took his diplomatic skills to decline the invitation. Among the points that he made in his rally speech were Egypt’s’ support for a Middle East Nuclear Weapons & WMD-Free zone since 1974; the need for two-track diplomacy to create a two-state Israeli-Palestinian state and for a MENWFZ. In a special forum, he provided an overview of Gaza’s geopolitical importance as the gateway to Sinai and thus its centrality to Egypt’s security. He argued that you can produce nuclear weapons with 20% enrichment and thus that Iran’s 60% was not a nuclear weapons program. (I rather doubt this. And, in earlier discussion he had noted what he described as the near impossibility of moving Iran in any form of negotiations, not just nuclear.) Reflecting his and maybe Egypt’s distance from events on the ground, he pressed a two-state solution amidst the genocide, disregarding the probability that a two-state solution is likely no longer possible. Similarly, I missed references to Israel’s commitment to a second Nakba and exploration of massive ethnic cleansing in talks between Israel and South Sudan over the possible transfer of Palestinians to that failed new state.
The rally and World Conference ended with dozens of Japanese and international participants joining to sing “We Shal’ Overcome” and a new song “We Can Be Friends” with deeply held emotions.
New Japan’s Women’s delegation Tanaka-sensei Nihon Hidankyo Hibakusha
Chieko Watanabe Choral
J.G. with Jeremy Corbyn, Emi Hirano & Ann Wright
Nino Burjanadze (PANYS)
CPDCS board member Nick Rabb co-chairs World Conf. Rally
Cheiko Watanabe Chorus
Joseph with members of Vietnamese Delegation
Joseph & Nick with Japanese Gaza Solidarity Gaza at Aug. 6 Lantern float
Children’s (Sadako) Statue Peace Park
Boston Globe Ad & Commemoration Banner
Hang in Gensuikyo’s Office (Tokyo)