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Thinking about Peace:
"Sharing the truth of 'absolute rejection of nuclear power'"
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by Haruko Moritaki
Co-Representative of the Hiroshima Alliance for
Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA)
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Since the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which bans nuclear weapons through international law, was adopted at the United Nations in July 2017, there are continuing struggles to reach enactment of the treaty.
Amidst new global tension there is a heightened risk of nuclear war, and the situation concerning nuclear weapons is becoming extremely dire.
These are the circumstances in which various initiatives are under way in different fields to pursue research activities that further reveal and pass on the actual situation of the atomic bombings and the damage inflicted by nuclear weapons.
As hibakusha, young people, researchers, and people involved in the anti-nuclear movement work together with governments in the atomic bombed areas and continuously conduct their activities, the expectation is that Hiroshima will train young people to lead and pass on such activities.
What the nuclear arms race has produced is the development of uranium mines, the production of nuclear weapons, damage from nuclear testing conducted all over the world, and nuclear war where atomic bombs were actually used.
It has brought about the utmost inhumane tragedy, unprecedented in the history of humankind.
At the same time, it has also caused irreversible nuclear damage from major accidents at nuclear power plants as the energy source.
Even the residue from the enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants are continuously used in war as depleted uranium weapons, and are increasing the nuclear damage.
In order to put an end to the negative legacy that humankind has created, the key is to first reveal what the actual situation is.
In 2015, 70 years after the end of the World War II, the World Nuclear Victims Forum was held, gathering together in Hiroshima City nuclear victims, including victims of nuclear testing, from all over the world.
At the Forum, one of the actions taken to reveal the actual situation was to issue the Declaration of the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima (Draft Elements of a Charter of World Nuclear Victims' Rights).
This we also understand as the serious responsibility of regions that have suffered from nuclear war.
From the experience of suffering from this unprecedented inhumane tragedy of the atomic bombing, some of hibakusha of Hiroshima have arrived at the principles that "human beings cannot coexist with nuclear power" and "humanity must survive", and based on these principles have led the battle against nuclear powers.
Absolute rejection of nuclear weapons means in reality the abolishment of nuclear weapons and the abolishment of nuclear power plants.
Since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki until today, I myself have earnestly fought to achieve these things, but there have been times when I felt like hopelessly distant objectives.
However, with the Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines in 1999, and the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008, I saw that these were achieved by collaboration between citizens and willing nations, and I was then certain―I thought "This is it! This is the process to use to abolish nuclear weapons and depleted uranium bombs!"
Since 2009, volunteers in Hiroshima has been appealing within Japan and overseas for a nuclear weapons convention and a convention to ban depleted uranium weapons, which are inhumane weapons, and has moved forward with the movement to prohibit such weapons through international law.
Following on from Oslo in 2013 and Mexico in 2014, in December 2014 I participated in the third International Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, which was held in Vienna.
At the Vienna conference, there was expansion and clarification of the movement to legally prohibit nuclear weapons, which are inhumane weapons.
The practice whereby civic society works in collaboration with willing nations is a process based on the method that was used to prohibit cluster bombs.
When I came back to Hiroshima from that conference I was filled with new certainty and hope, and with a determination to exert all my efforts to prohibit and put an end to nuclear weapons through international law.
The Conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons was held at the United Nations in March and June-July, 2017.
At the same time, we asked A-bomb survivor organizations and other anti-nuclear civic groups to appeal for "a nuclear weapons convention now!" as one voice from Hiroshima, the place of origin for the anti-nuclear movement.
As a result, twenty-seven organizations gathered and held civic gatherings and a candle message gathering at A-Bomb Dome, and issued a joint statement to communicate to people in Japan and overseas.
Hiroshima citizens also lit 1,000 candle glass lights to write "BAN NUKES NOW! 2017".
A photo of this was sent to people at the United Nations, international NGOs and others to call for solidarity, and it created a huge impact internationally.
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"BAN NUKES NOW! 2017"
written with 1,000 candles in front of A-Bomb Dome, as a message to the world (June 15, 2017)
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The United States and other nuclear weapon states and nations that depend on nuclear deterrence capabilities such as Japan oppose the adoption of the TPNW at the United Nations and are frantically trying to somehow prevent its enactment.
The US Trump administration has been pursuing a path towards nuclear war, starting with its declaration of the use of small-scale nuclear weapons in war with the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) in February 2018, through to its withdrawal from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in February 2019.
The government of Japan, the country that has been bombed by atomic bombs, completely opposes the TPNW and at the same time evaluates highly the NPR, and has become a target of distrust from the global community.
However, it is no longer possible to stop the global momentum for legal prohibition of nuclear weapons: the TPNW has now been signed by 70 states and ratified by 22 states as of February 25, 2019.
The damage from war and nuclear weapon that I have seen, as one born and brought up in Hiroshima, is the violent deaths of innocent people caused by the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima by the United States, the hibakushas' struggles with illness, and ultimately, "delayed death", the collapse of personal relationships, and producing A-bomb orphans and elderly hibakusha living alone.
However, that was not the only nuclear damage.
Nuclear damage is caused at each stage of the cycle of use of nuclear power.
That reality has been thrust in front of me in the uranium mines of India, the nuclear test sites in Nevada, the damage survey sites where depleted uranium bombs were used in the Iraq war, and at the site of the damage from the Fukushima nuclear accident.
I have raced through life for decades while pouring all my energy into the fight against harsh reality.
And this has all taught me that absolute rejection of nuclear weapons ultimately means a fight with the huge power of states and nuclear industry.
As long as the light of my small life is still alive, I will continue to take on the battle of those who came before me.
And I believe that young people will definitely and powerfully take on this work.
＊80 states have signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and 34 have ratified it as of November 25, 2019.
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Profile
[Haruko Moritaki]
Co-Representative of the Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (since 2001),
Joint Facilitator of the Japan NGO Network for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (since 2010),
Secretary-general of the Hiroshima Project for Banning DU Weapons (since 2003),
operating committee member of the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW) (since 2004),
Secretary-general of the World Nuclear Victims Forum (since 2014),
part-time lecturer at Hiroshima University (2015-2016).
Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation council member.
Winner of the 2018 Kiyoshi Tanimoto Peace Award.
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