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CounterPunch
August
19, 2002
Peace Declarations from Hiroshima and Nagasaki
by David Krieger
Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the two most important
places in the world where memory is preserved about what nuclear
weapons do to people and to cities. Each year on August 6th and
9th respectively, the anniversaries of the bombings, the mayors
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki deliver the Peace Declarations for
their cities. These statements provide a pulse of the status
of efforts to eliminate the nuclear weapons threat to humanity
and all life.
On the 57th anniversary of the bombing
of Hiroshima, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba lamented that the painful
experience of those who survived the bombings "appears to
be fading from the collective memory of humankind," and
that consequently "the probability that nuclear weapons
will be used and the danger of nuclear war are increasing."
 Mayor Akiba noted that the "path of reconciliation...has
been abandoned." He called for "conscientious exploration
and understanding of the past." To achieve this end, he
called for establishing a "Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Study
Course in colleges and universities around the world," and
indicated that plans for this are already in progress. He also
urged President Bush to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki to "confirm
with his own eyes what nuclear weapons hold in store for us all."
Thus far, no American president has visited either city.
Mayor Akiba called upon the government
of Japan "to reject nuclear weapons absolutely and to renounce
war." The Japanese government, he said, "has a responsibility
to convey the memories, voices, and prayers of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki throughout the world, especially to the United States,
and for the sake of tomorrow's children, to prevent war."
Mayor Iccho Itoh of Nagasaki condemned
the United States for its withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic
Missile (ABM) Treaty; its rejection of the Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty; and its plans to move forward with missile defenses,
to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons, and to use preemptive
nuclear strikes. "We are appalled," he said, "by
this series of unilateral actions taken by the government of
the United States, actions which are also being condemned by
people of sound judgment throughout the world."
Mayor Itoh called for the government
of Japan to confirm in law the three non-nuclear principles that
have guided Japan (that it will not possess, manufacture or allow
nuclear weapons into the country). He also called for the Japanese
government to help create a Northeast Asian Nuclear Weapons Free
Zone, to cease its reliance on the US "nuclear umbrella,"
and "to enhance the welfare of aging atomic bomb survivors
residing both within and outside Japan."
Mayor Itoh announced that the City of
Nagasaki would be hosting in 2003 a second worldwide gathering
of civil society organizations to add impetus to efforts to eliminate
nuclear weapons. The City of Nagasaki, he said, will also be
reaching out to youth by promoting the Nagasaki Peace Education
Program.
"The abolition of nuclear arms through
mutual understanding and dialogue," said Mayor Itoh, "is
an absolute precondition for the realization of a peaceful world.
It is up to us, ordinary citizens, to rise up and lead the world
to peace."
Ordinary citizens of the United States
must soon come to understand the critical message of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki being conveyed by the mayors of these cities on
behalf of those who perished and those who survived the atomic
bombings. Without such understanding, and with such enormous
power left in the hands of men like George W. Bush and many of
his advisors shaping nuclear policy, the world moves closer to
the day when more cities will share the fate of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.
David Krieger
is president of the Nuclear
Age Peace Foundation. He is the co-author with Daisaku
Ikeda of Choose
Hope: Your Role in Waging Peace in the Nuclear Age recently
published by Middleway Press. He can be contacted at dkrieger@napf.org.
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