News story: July 2010, Ursula Gelis

The Peace Boat Hibakusha Project organizes global voyages for a nuclear-free world. Peace Boat is a Japanese-based, international NGO, working since 1983 to promote peace and sustainability through the organization of peace voyages.

The vital organization is engaged in advocacy work and education activities focusing on disarmament, conflict prevention and development. Since 2008 survivors of the bombings in 1945, the Hibakusha of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are participating in the global voyage. “The US government claimed that the reason for the bombings was to end WWII and save lives. However, Japan’s defeat in the war was probably already certain by then. Therefore it can be assumed that there was another strategy in mind. Background factors included the strategy against the Soviet Union, which foresaw the Cold War and the intention to experiment the ‘fruits’ of the Manhattan Project (a project specially started to develop atomic bombs), in which an enormous expense was invested.”

The survivors are giving personal testimonies about the effects of the atomic bombs in every port where the boat is staying. Currently, there are approximately 250,000 Hibakusha officially certified by the Japanese government. The average age of the travelers is 75. The victims, beside innocently being exposed to the inhuman effects of the atomic bombs dropped on their cities, had to face another discrimination by their own country in the aftermath of the Second World War, WWII.

Their diseases caused by the devastating consequences of the bombings, i.e. radiation and burnings, where not recognized by the Japanese government. The official Japan simply denied the correlation between the atomic bombings and the health defects of the Hibakusha.  In other words, new psychological wounds had been opened for them. The denial within their own country silenced them for a long time.

By talking to about ten survivors in June 2010 in Bergen, I realized the appalling parallel between the Japanese survivors and victims of the Holocaust. For both groups the denial within their own societies, the silence between the generations and some kind of ‘being a survivor’ guilty feelings are similar phenomena.

“We have changed very much”, said one of the travelers, “by informing people all over the world what happened to us, we are getting more self-confident.”  On their journey the activists are visiting schools, are organizing demonstrations and meetings with decision makers.

The visit of the peace boat was combined with a seminar about the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its current role after the NPT Review conference at the United Nations in New York which just had ended about two weeks ago. Many Hibakusha had been present in New York as well, also joining the ‘No-to-Nuclear Weapons’ demonstration on the 2^nd of May in Manhattan.

In Bergen, at the CMI (Christian-Michelsen-Institute) I saw Mr. Kunihiko Bonkohara again after I have had the opportunity to listen to him last month in New York. His dedication to travel around the globe in order to work against the forgetfulness of the dangers of the atomic bomb is remarkable.

Yet, the survivors are not only concerned with their own past - the future of our Earth is actually their focal point. As the title of this article indicates, the Hibakusha are calling for the end of use of all nuclear materials globally. By saying: “No more victims of the bomb!” those peace activists are referring to current victims: The victims of uranium mining, the people exposed to nuclear waste at dumping sites, employees involved in the production of nuclear devises and weapons.  They worry about the long lasting effects of former nuclear testing (about 2000 tests) and last but not least soldiers exposed to depleted uranium in combat; - not to forget about the local population living among such remaining weaponry!  In short, the unpredictable, uncontrollable and inhuman consequences of those materials are of the Hibakusha’s main concern. They are against all kinds of war and are advocating for nuclear weapon free zones.

Outlawing nuclear weapons is the only way to eliminate those weapons of mass destruction.

Several distinguished speakers were coloring the seminar. After a warm welcome by Akira Kawasaki, the program director of ‘peace boat’, the executive director of the UK based Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, Dr. Rebecca Johnson, took us on a ‘tour de force’ from the beginning of the atomic age through the development of the NPT towards the Nuclear weapons convention (NWC).

“The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is a global grassroots movement for total nuclear disarmament through a legally binding and verifiable Nuclear Weapons Convention. Such a treaty would ban the production, testing, use and possession of nuclear weapons, and establish a timeframe for their elimination. A model convention prepared by non-government organizations has the endorsement of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. ICAN was launched in 2007 as an initiative of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a global federation of medical professionals. Today more than 200 organizations in 50 countries are part of ICAN and thousands of individuals have signed our pledge for a nuclear-weapon-free world. We provide a voice to the overwhelming majority of people across the globe supporting abolition.”

The ICAN strategy had been to introduce the NWC concept or idea into the NPT conference of 2010. It worked out but “we would have loved to start negotiations of a NWC” within the NPT context. Dr. Johnson said that the NPT framework, especially article VI: ‘To pursue negotiations in good faith’, is not enough. “We saw this May 2010 at the conference that the nuclear weapon states are controlling the NPT. Implementation of the ‘5 point plan’ by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon is working for the NWC.”  Rebecca Johnson made it clear that the NWC is within the fulfillment of the Non-proliferation treaty and civil society is in a stronger position ever to work for a NWC. Later she drew parallels between the struggle for the ending of nuclear testing and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) - which still needs to enter into force - and the current campaign.

To abolish and outlaw nuclear weapons requires alliances on all levels of civil society: locally, regionally, and internationally. The countries under the nuclear umbrella provided by the United States have a special role to play if it comes to campaigning for a world free of nuclear weapons. In the countries of ‘nuclear sharing’ civil society has a special obligation to put pressure on their governments. Aside applying pressure activist groups should help their governments to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons. One point of reference could be the connection between ‘climate chaos’ and weapons of mass destruction. Needless to say that humanitarian issues and Human rights have to be addressed as well. Nuclear weapons pose the ultimate threat to humankind and are a horrendous human rights violation. - “Our advocacy work is outside the NPT framework and real strategizing must start now. We can and we must.”

Tim Wright from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) stressed the need for an additional legal instrument beside the NPT. The campaign for a world free of nuclear weapons cannot wait until the next NPT Review conference in 2015. Thinking outside the NPT is essential.

Ole Kopreitan, a Norwegian abolitionist for more than 50 years, representing the NGO ‘No-to-nuclear-weapons’, informed the audience about the Norwegian initiative to create a broad alliance among 44 national civil society groups to put pressure on the Norwegian government to work actively for the implementation of president Obama’s vision for a world free of nuclear weapons. 

Alyn Ware, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, and global coordinator, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament, spoke about the Model NWC submitted to the NPT Prep Com (May 2007) and the UN General Assembly (Dec 2007) by Costa Rica and Malaysia.

Randy Rydell, UN office of Disarmament Affairs, shared his views about the NPT conference with us. Due to the fact that a final document was agreed on by consensus he evaluated the conference as a success. He discussed essential points of the final document as the call by Non-Nuclear-Weapon-States (NNWS) for legally binding negative security assurances, the de-alerting issue, i.e. to take nuclear weapons off ‘trigger alert’, and the introduction of ‘soft language’ into the final document, referring to Humanitarian law.

“The conference […] notes with concern that the total estimated number of nuclear weapons deployed and stockpiled still amounts to several thousands. The conference expresses its deep concern at the continued risk for humanity represented by the possibility that these weapons could be used and the catastrophic humanitarian consequences that would result from the use of nuclear weapons.”

The call for more transparency is crucial. Mr. Rydell especially welcomed the broad participation of NGOs. According to his view the UN has a crucial role in disarmament and the conference on disarmament (CD) is the body in which negotiations of treaties are taking place. Disarmament education is another pillar which is essential if it comes to the abolition of weapons of mass destruction.  

John Y. Jones from networkers South/North, Dag Hammarskjöldprogram, Oslo, was reflecting on the potential role of the churches in disarmament, while Mari Jetlund from IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) gave an account of the European IPPNW conference in Oslo in April 2010, focusing on teaching about the health effects of nuclear war.

Alexander Harang, board member of the Norwegian Peace Council talked about the Norwegian NGO-delegation to the NPT conference. This month he published a report (in Norwegian): “Nuclear disarmament. From the NPT towards the NWC”. 

Nuclear disarmament is back on the international agenda and the call for a nuclear weapons convention is introduced due to the tremendous efforts by civil society. Campaigning for a NWC is becoming a global effort which is likely to succeed. It is very simple: Thinking and acting ‘outside the box’ is the momentum which has to be seized. We are on the move.

Links:

Peaceboat - www.peaceboat.org

Norwegian Peace Council - http://norgesfredsrad.no/index.php?module=folder&action=view&page=1329

ICAN NPT Rev Con report - www.icanw.org/files/RevCon2010.pdf