2-13-09, 10:06 am

Original source: Akahata (Japan)

On March 1st ,55 years ago, the Daigo Fukuryu Maru (Fifth Lucky Dragon), a Japanese tuna fishing boat and its crewmembers as well as many local islanders were showered with radioactive fallout from a US hydrogen bomb test explosion at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

Various meetings and workshops will be held in Yaizu City, the home port of Daigo Fukuryu Maru, as well as in Shizuoka City to commemorate the Bikini tragedy and renew the commitment to increasing the movement to get nuclear weapons eliminated from the world.

Taka Hiroshi, Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) secretary-general, spoke about the features and focuses of this year’s Bikini Day event in an interview with Akahata.

The March 1st Bikini Day events this year will take place amid the global call for ‘a nuclear weapons-free world. We hope to make these events a launching pad for an even bigger campaign toward the 2009 World Conference against A and H Bombs and the 2010 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference.

Calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons, we have worked for many years to abolish nuclear weapons in cooperation with not only international anti-nuclear movements but also with countries of the Non-Aligned Movement and the New Agenda Coalition. Now the call for the abolition of nuclear weapons is spreading to an even broader spectrum of people.

The 2007 call for the abolition of nuclear weapons, launched by former US secretaries of states George Schultz and Henry Kissinger and other former senior US officials, has been joined by former cabinet members of other nuclear power states and US allies as well as some heads of state. The abolition of nuclear weapons is also a campaign promise made by the US president.

In Britain earlier this year, three retired military commanders issued an appeal arguing that nuclear weapons have shown themselves to be completely useless as a deterrent to the threats and scale of violence we currently, or are likely, to, face. Former German political leaders, including a former president and a former chancellor, also published a joint essay demanding that “all remaining US nuclear warheads be withdrawn from German territory.”

International activists who have worked hard and contributed to creating this change in international opinion will take part in this year’s March 1st Bikini Day events. They include a US activist who has participated in the campaign to make the issue of nuclear weapons a focal point in the US presidential election and an NGO advisor to the international committee established jointly by the Japanese and Australian governments to make proposals to the NPT Review Conference. I anticipate that we will have active discussions and deepen our friendship with them.

This being the trend of the world for peace, we should closely watch what the Japanese government will do on this question. The Japanese government proposed in the UN General Assembly last year a resolution entitled “Renewed determination towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons.” However, the resolution does not present any specific steps to be taken. If Japan continues to turn its back on international calls for the abolition of nuclear weapons to be made a consensus in international politics, it will not be able to fulfill its responsibility as the only A-bombed nation.

What underlies this is Japan’s dependence on the US 'nuclear umbrella.' It is absolutely unreasonable for Japan to call on other countries to abandon their nuclear weapons while asking the United States to protect Japan with US nuclear weapons. Thus, our activities to urge the Japanese government to turn into a non-nuclear and peaceful Japan have become more important than ever.

While putting emphasis on the effort to increase public awareness about the realities of the atomic bombing, we will further increase the anti-nuclear weapons signature-collecting drive and heighten public opinion in support of the abolition of nuclear weapons. I hope many people from various organizations or communities from throughout Japan will participate in the Bikini Day events, including the Gensuikyo Rally and the Yaizu Rally.