Editorial
A-bomb anniversaries a chance to bring momentum to growing global non-nuclear movement
Ten years have passed since filmmaker Masaaki Tanabe, 71, a hibakusha living in Hiroshima, began to recreate areas around Ground Zero in Hiroshima before the atomic bombing in 1945 using state-of-the-art 3D computer graphic technology. The core of the project is the recreation of the busy commercial and entertainment district that stood where the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is now located.
The aim of the film, to be shown at the 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) to be held at the U.N. headquarters in May next year, is to demonstrate how people lives disappeared in an eyeblink on Aug. 6, 1945.
People offered prayers for peace in Hiroshima on Thursday and will do so in Nagasaki on Sunday. As 64 years have passed since atomic bombs were dropped in these two cities and hibakusha are aging, the methods for drawing up a road map toward nuclear disarmament are being tested.
In a speech in Prague in April, U.S. President Barack Obama mentioned a "moral responsibility" as the only nation to have used a nuclear bomb, and declared that the country will "take concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons."
Tanabe places expectations on changes in international opinion. Noted fashion designer Issei Miyake contributed an article to The New York Times last month, in which he publicized his experiences of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima for the first time, and urged people to rally around President Obama in calling for nuclear disarmament.
The Hiroshima Peace Declaration this year pointed out Obama's speech in Prague has "solidified our conviction that the only role for nuclear weapons is to be abolished," and expressed support for the president. The Nagasaki Peace Declaration will also highly appreciate the president's speech. Expectations for and sympathy with his speech are spreading.
Nevertheless, there are extremely high hurdles to achieving nuclear disarmament, and President Obama admitted it's unlikely to be achieved during his lifetime.
The president regards the strengthening of the NPT as one of the pillars of his comprehensive strategy for nuclear disarmament. However, no optimism is warranted about whether such efforts will produce sufficient results, as the national interests of those countries concerned conflict with each other.
How to deal with are India and Pakistan, nuclear powers that do not participate in the NPT, and Israel, which is suspected of possessing a large number of nuclear warheads, is a big headache. North Korea has withdrawn from the treaty and conducted nuclear tests while Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of warnings by the U.N. Security Council. Concern about nuclear proliferation is growing, and fears that terrorists will obtain nuclear arms are becoming increasingly realistic.
The circumstances surrounding nuclear weapons in the world are becoming complex and only the United States and other major nuclear powers cannot respond to the current situation. It's necessary for non-nuclear powers to participate in creating nuclear arms reduction and non-proliferation regimes on a global scale.
While appealing for nuclear disarmament, Japan has kept the Japan-U.S. security arrangement -- in which Japan has been protected under the U.S. nuclear umbrella -- at the core of its security policy. Japan's security situation has become increasingly severe as North Korea presses forward with its nuclear and missile programs and China modernizes its military. Some have expressed concern that the effectiveness of the nuclear umbrella will decrease if the U.S. reduces its nuclear stockpile.
Still, if the U.S. becomes in favor of nuclear arms reductions and non-proliferation regimes on a global scale, Japan, as the only country that suffered atomic bombings, can play a more active role in such efforts even if it continues to rely on the U.S. nuclear umbrella in the foreseeable future.
Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said Japan will host an international conference on nuclear arms reductions and non-proliferation next year. The International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, co-chaired by former Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, is expected to compile a report outlining the schedule leading to nuclear disarmament following a conference in Hiroshima in October.
The Hiroshima Municipal Government calls the great global majority, who hope for nuclear disarmament, an "Obamajority," and has launched a grassroots campaign in support of President Obama. Its short-term goal is to have the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, a road map toward nuclear disarmament by 2020, adopted at the NPT review conference. The protocol has been worked out by the Mayors for Peace, a group comprised of over 3,000 cities from all over the world and led by Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba.
As a people who know the tragedy of nuclear weapons, the Japanese are urged to campaign to swing international opinion in favor of nuclear disarmament, so that human beings can boldly advance toward a world without nuclear weapons.
(Mainichi Japan) August 6, 2009