Thinking about Peace;
Toward A Peaceful World Without Nuclear Weapons |
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by Katsuko Kataoka
Professor Emeritus at Hiroshima University
Secretary General, Japanese Physicians for the Prevention
of Nuclear War (JPPNW) |
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I pray the souls of the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake rest
in peace and wish for the survivors being able to resume their normal lives
soon. At the same time I regret the poor handling after the accident at
the TEPCO Fukushima-daiichi nuclear power plant. Peace has various dimensions:
from the absence of war to the protection of human rights including no
structural violence, and to sustain sound environment. I would like to
mention some of my thoughts on these issues.
Hopes for the abolition of nuclear weapons have heightened since President
Obama's speech in Prague in April 2009, but the reliance of major states
on nuclear deterrence for their security seems unlikely to change. A nuclear
attack based on error or misinformation has somehow been avoided, but there
is no guarantee that this luck will continue. The use of nuclear weapons
by a non-state body is also a possibility. As long as Japan relies on the
"nuclear umbrella" of the United States, the possibility of a
nuclear attack can not be escaped. As we stated in the 2007 Report from
the Committee of Experts on Damage Scenarios Resulting from a Nuclear Weapons
Attack(*1), cities can not withstand attacks by even the smallest nuclear weapon.
Nuclear weapons are dangerous even when not used. An estimated 3,000×1018Bq of radioactive materials
(excluding induced radioactivity(*2)) has been released in atmospheric nuclear tests and fallen to earth all
over the world. This is a tremendous amount incomparably greater than the
amounts released in the Chernobyl disaster (8×1018Bq) or last year's accident at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima
(0.18×1018Bq according to a government report submitted to the International Atomic
Energy Agency in June 2011). The environmental pollution that results during
the course of the development and manufacture of nuclear weapons can not
even be surveyed as it has been hampered by the barrier of national security.
Nuclear weapons are an absolute evil, and their abolition is the earnest
desire of the people of Hiroshima. In 1996 the International Court of Justice
issued an advisory opinion stating that "...the threat or use of nuclear
weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable
in armed conflict and particularly the principles and rules of humanitarian
law". International humanitarian law includes not only the protection
of civilians themselves but also of things essential for their survival
and of their environment. This can be interpreted to mean that carpet bombing
and all attacks on cities violate humanitarian law, except in extremely
rare circumstances. |
IPPNW fully supports the effort of Mayors for Peace, which has more than
5,000 member municipalities around the world, to promote the elimination
of nuclear weapons by the year 2020 as well as its Cities Are Not Targets
(CANT) Project. We also advocate the addition of specific wording on "nuclear
weapons and other indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction" to the
crimes against humanity cited in the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court(*3).
The next condition for the creation of a peaceful world is to ensure basic
human rights such as equality, securing liberty and physical safety, and
providing basic education as well as bases of healthy and cultural life,
for the people over the world. Military expenditures represent a huge proportion
of the national budgets of many poor countries despite their lack of safe
supplies of food and water and basic levels of education. |
IPPNW medical students on a bicycle tour in support of the abolition of
nuclear weapons in Basel, Switzerland in 2010. A tour from Nagasaki to
Hiroshima is planned for the run-up to the 20th IPPNW World Congress to
be held in Hiroshima on August 24-26, 2012. |
And yet it is wealthy nations like the permanent members of the United
Nations Security Council that are selling weapons to those countries. This
continued injustice provides a hotbed for conflict and terrorism. I believe
that protecting the nation means protecting its citizens in a democratic
country, and by extension, it means protecting the people worldwide.
There are believed to be two basic ways in which people's minds work: systemizing
(S) and empathizing (E). S types are logical and attach importance to the
intellect. They systematize, order things and emphasize hierarchy. E types
balance intellect and sensitivity. They are tolerant, good at collaborating
with others, and showing consideration for the weak. They also have good
communication skills. S types forge straight ahead toward their goals whereas
E types don't mind taking a roundabout way in order to move one step forward.
S types try to subjugate nature while E types try to coexist with it. It
is generally said that men tend to be S types whereas women tend to be
E types, but men and women have elements of both types, and people who
are extremely one way or the other may face difficulties socially. Modern
society was developed by mainly S-type thinking. Now is the time for E-type
thinking to be used to overcome the environmental and human survival issues
that have arisen as a result of the development of modern society. This
also means a gender-equal society being inevitable. |
| (Contributed in July 2011) |
| (*1) |
Report from the Committee of Experts on Damage Scenarios Resulting from
a Nuclear Weapons Attack: When formulating its civil protection plan, the
City of Hiroshima set up a Committee of Experts on Damage Scenarios Resulting
from a Nuclear Weapons Attack under its Civil Protection Council and made
its own predictions of damage. The report was issued on November 9, 2007. |
| (*2) |
Induced Radioactivity: Radioactivity produced in certain materials as a
result of nuclear reactions, particularly the capture of neutrons. This
results in non-radioactive materials to be radioactive. |
| (*3) |
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: A permanent body of the
International Criminal Court established for the prosecution and punishment
of the most serious crimes which are of interest to the international community
as a whole. Sets forth the obligations of cooperation of the signatory
nations. |
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[profile]
Katsuko Kataoka
Physician with a Ph. D. degree in medical science from Hiroshima University.
Became a professor at Hiroshima University School of Medicine in 1981.
Retired in 2007 and became a professor emeritus.
Since 2007 has served as the Secretary General of Japanese Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War,
an affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1985).
Chair of the Hiroshima Women Physicians Society.
Member of the board of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation and the Hiroshima City of the Future Foundation. |
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