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Hiroshima Mayor's Visit to Norway to Attend the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony
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Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui (President of Mayors for Peace) visited Oslo City in Norway for five days from December 8-12, 2017, to attend the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony to award ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons), as well as other events.
Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony
The ceremony was held on December 10.
There were around 1,000 guests invited to the solemn ceremony, including Mayor Matsui and Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue.
In front of the main members of ICAN who had gathered from countries all over the world, hibakusha, and government representatives from countries supporting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Ms. Beatrice Fihn, the director of ICAN, stated that she thinks it is abnormal that nuclear weapons have been accepted as a fixture in the world, and pointed out that it is nothing but luck that has enabled us to avoid a nuclear war up until now.
She stated "They don't keep us safe" and rejected security policies that are dependent on nuclear deterrence.
She said that choosing the end of nuclear weapons, rather than the end of the human race, is the rational choice, and urged all nations to participate in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
At the ceremony Ms. Setsuko Thurlow, who survived the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, spoke about her own experience of the bombing, stating that nuclear weapons are not a necessary evil but an absolute evil.
She strongly urged participants to begin work to end nuclear weapons with the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The audience broke into loud applause a number of times during Ms. Thurlow's speech, and when she finished everyone at the venue stood up to pay their respect to the award winner.
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Together with hibakusha Ms. Setsuko Thurlow (second from right)
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This prize ceremony was a great opportunity to say to the people of the world that achieving a world free of nuclear weapons will be indispensable for creating a peaceful world, and for urging people to work together to achieve that goal.
Meetings with other state government members
Before and after the award ceremony, Mayor Matsui held discussions with Foreign Minister Gonzalez and Ambassador Whyte from Costa Rica, which is President of the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, as well as Foreign Minister Videgaray and two ambassadors from Mexico, who led discussions at the Review Conference, and ambassadors and others from states that support the Treaty such as Austria and Ireland.
Mayor Matsui told those he met with that it is important for policymakers in nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states to consider and discuss what is important now to achieve our common objective of a peaceful world, rather than a world of conflict.
He also said that Mayors for Peace would like to create an environment and develop public support to push policymakers to exercise their leadership and requested each country's support in efforts to expand Mayors for Peace membership in each country, in order to extend the influence of the organization.
The people he met with expressed their strong agreement with the significance of civic activities going beyond national borders.
Attendance at other events
On December 9, Mr. Raymond Johansen, the Governing Mayor of Oslo, Dr. Svein Stølen, Rector of Oslo University, Hiroshima Mayor Matsui and Nagasaki Mayor Taue planted in pots the seeds of Hackberry, Jujube, Kurogane Holly and Gingko trees.
The seeds had been taken from trees that survived the atomic bombing.
The planting was held at Oslo University Botanical Garden in front of just over twenty A-bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Mayor Matsui gave a speech, in which he said that he hoped the seeds would take root in Oslo's soil as a symbol of peace, and that as they grew, the momentum for the abolition of nuclear weapons would also heighten and that the desire for peace would be shared widely over a long period of time.
On the same day, Mayor Matsui viewed an exhibition about the Nobel Peace Prize held at the Nobel Peace Center.
At the exhibition, as a display related to ICAN being awarded the Peace Prize, there were articles that belonged to people who lost their lives in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki－the articles will be on display until November 2018.
The articles of those who died communicate a quiet yet powerful message to people about the inhumane nature of nuclear weapons.
It is hoped that the many visitors to the exhibition will reaffirm the need to abolish nuclear weapons, and that it will lead to an increase in the number of people who cooperate in Mayors for Peace activities.
Through this trip
In Oslo we keenly felt once again the importance of the role of civic society in achieving a world free of nuclear weapons, and the potential of civic society to influence the global community.
The abolition of nuclear weapons is not something that can be achieved overnight.
The current global situation means that it is hard to be optimistic for progress on nuclear disarmament, and in that light, the fact that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to an international campaign made up of members from non-nuclear weapon states and civic society that contributed to the adoption of Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which clearly prohibits nuclear weapons by law, has great significance.
The Nobel Peace Prize 2017 has surely given further courage and motivation to many people who are taking action for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
In addition to all those who attended the award ceremony, many people who joined in parades to celebrate ICAN winning the prize and saw the ceremony in the media strengthened their solidarity with others who have the same aspirations.
It became an opportunity to further raise their voices so that they reach nuclear weapon states and other states under the nuclear umbrella.
In order to create an environment that encourages the policymakers of nuclear weapon states to move away from the illusion of nuclear deterrence, we would like to communicate the truth of the damage from the atomic bombing and the inhumanity of nuclear weapons to more people, increase the number of cities that are members of Mayors for Peace, and strengthen our influence on the development of opinion in the global community.
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| (Peace and International Solidarity Promotion Division) |
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