International Meeting
2024 World Conference against A and H Bombs
Opening Session
Organizers’Address
NOGUCHI Kunikazu
Co-Chairperson of the Steering Committee
Organizing Committee of the World Conference against A & H Bombs
Dear participants in the 2024 World Conference against A and H Bombs,
On behalf of the Organizing Committee, I extend my cordial greetings of welcome and solidarity to you all. The World Conference this year is taking place from August 3 to 9 with the main theme: “Together with the Hibakusha, let us achieve a nuclear weapon-free, peaceful and just world — for the future of humankind and our planet.” We are meeting in person basically while some participants are attending online. Let me assure you that the Organizing Committee is doing its utmost to make this year’ s World Conference in Hiroshima and Nagasaki larger than last year in scale.
I am glad to announce you that our World Conference will be attended by representatives of the United Nations working at the forefront for the promotion of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). We also have the honor to welcome representatives of the governments from Austria, Cuba, Mexico, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan. We will also have antinuclear and peace movement activists from Asia-Pacific region, including those from the Republic of Korea, who are struggling to make the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free and build a peace system there. We will be joined by dedicated members of peace movements and grassroots activists from Europe and the Americas, who are playing a leading role in the struggle for abolishing nuclear weapons. From Japan, we have hibakusha, heads of local governments in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and many other people coming from around the country. They are engaged in signature collection as well as the campaign for a nuclear weapon-free Japan launched from the 70th year commemoration of the Bikini disaster to the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We have people who oppose the Kishida government’s massive arms buildup and its attempt to adversely revise the Constitution to gut the war-renouncing Article 9. We also have leaders of various struggles and campaigns: struggles against U.S. military bases and for their removal, against nuclear power plants, struggle for ending the climate crisis, struggle against economic inequality, and struggle for gender equality. We are also joined by the sufferers of the 2011 great earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident.
The average age of hibakusha who are holders of the hibakusha health handbook has reached 85.58 (as of March 31, 2024). Over the past year, the number of A-bomb survivors has fallen by 6,824 down to 106,825, dropping under the 110,000 mark for the first time. Next year, their number will probably be under 100,000. It is sad to think that hibakusha are aging and leaving us. Let us extend our deep appreciation to the hibakusha for their tireless endeavor to make people in Japan and the world aware of the humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons. In order to honor their wish to see a world without nuclear weapons in their lifetime, we are called upon to do our utmost with renewed determination to further advance our movement.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimates the global military expenditure for 2023 at record high 2 trillion 440 billion dollars (or about 378 trillion yen). We learned from the three years and three months-long COVID-19 pandemic, declared by the World Health Organization (WHO), that arms buildup did more harm than good for preventing contagion. In fact, about 765 million people in the world were infected with the coronavirus and about 6.9 million people died from it. As you see, the pandemic dealt a heavy blow to the entire world. Nevertheless, the nuclear-armed nations — the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China — continued to reinforce their nuclear arsenals just as if they were in the Cold War era. They must know that their growing military spending, including modernization of nuclear weapons, hampers the efforts to improve people’s living conditions, employment, medical care, welfare, education and other public services. If money and human resources wasted for military-related research and development are reallocated to non-military sectors, the world will be a much better place to live.
On December 12 last year, the UN General Assembly adopted, with a large majority of 153 votes in favor, a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza district. Russian invasion of Ukraine is a criminal act and violates the UN Charter and international humanitarian law. On February 23 last year, a year after the invasion of Ukraine began, the UN General Assembly held a special emergency meeting and adopted with 141 countries voting in favor, with 141 countries voting in favor a resolution urging an immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine and a halt to fighting. However, this year, while the UN General Assembly called another emergency meeting to discuss the Israeli invasion of Gaza that began in last October, it shelved the adoption of a resolution to call for the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine and a ceasefire. The US Biden administration that did condemn Russia for invading Ukraine, defended Israel for the attacks it launched on Gaza. True, the international situation is very complex and not easy to solve the problem of this nature, but we definitely reject double standards. The present crisis originates from a military rivalry or a nuclear rivalry that is prevailing, seen more and more as a solution. The only way to resolve armed conflicts or disputes and prevent nuclear war is for the international community to strictly abide by the principles of peaceful resolution of war or disputes in conformity with the UN Charter and international humanitarian law, the ban of the use or threat to use force, and the total prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons.
It’s a matter of grave concern that the Vladimir Putin’s government is repeatedly threatening to use nuclear weapons in the face of governments and people throwing their support behind Ukraine. The tactical nuclear weapons Russia completed to deploy in Belarus last October are reportedly operational and in combat readiness now. In May this year, the Russian forces carried out training exercises, assuming the use of tactical nuclear weapons, with Belarusian troops participating. It should be reminded that the UN Charter prohibits the threat and threat of use of force and the TPNW specifically prohibits the use and threat of use of nuclear weapons. The Putin administration’s threats of use testify to the danger of nuclear deterrence theory. Nuclear weapons do not preserve peace and security. They only heighten the risks of invasion, intimidation and rising tension, which is all too clear from the current situation. Let us be convinced that the only guarantee that ensures humankind the freedom from calamity of the use of nuclear weapons is to ban nuclear weapons and eliminate them.
The Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition, Nagasaki University (RECNA) estimates that the number of nuclear warheads in the world has fell by 400 in the past year. However, there are still as many as 12,120 nuclear warheads stockpiled in the world as of June 2024. In addition, the so-called modernized active warheads, not including those retired or are awaiting dismantlement, have been increasing year on year since 2018. The RECNA describes the current situation plainly by saying: “The nuclear arms race is on.” Setsuko Thurlow, a hibakusha of Hiroshima who lives in Canada, says that if nuclear weapons have not been used in the past 79 years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is not because nuclear deterrence has worked but merely because the good fortune has been with us as we have campaigned for a ban and elimination of nuclear weapons. Under the present highly computerized nuclear weapon systems, computer glitch or miscalculation could lead to unintended nuclear explosion or nuclear war. The risk of cyberattacks is increasing. Since about 40 years ago scientists have been warning that even the limited use of smaller nuclear weapons could cause climate change and hunger on a global scale and threaten the survival of humanity. We cannot rely on good fortune for ensuring the safety of humankind.
At a time when the world is facing the compelling risk of nuclear weapons being used, many countries are seriously moving to support the prohibition and elimination of these weapons. By contrast, the Japanese government led by Prime Minister Kishida Fumio is pushing ahead with a massive military buildup by using as pretext, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a crisis in Northeast Asia. It is seeking to acquire what it calls “counterattack capability”, which would enable Japan to attack a military base of potential enemy countries. Japan’s five-year military buildup plan will increase the country’s military spending to 1.6 times what is currently planned, which is tantamount to increasing the total spending to 43 trillion yen in total for the 2023-2027 period. It is implementing the major arms buildup policy as dictated by the United States.
On April 10, Kishida and Biden issued a joint statement declaring that (1) Japan will cooperate with the military alliance made up of the United States, Britain and Australia (AUKUS) in the development of advanced military technology, (2) United States welcomes Japan’s exports of lethal weapons, and the two countries will work together to develop and produce missiles, (3) Japan will push ahead with the construction of a new US military base in Henoko Okinawa, allegedly the only solution to the military base problem, (4) Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and the US military will be integrated in a seamless manner in operations and capabilities. If these plans go unchallenged and are implemented, it will mean a decisive departure of Japan from its post-war defense policy based on exclusively defensive self-defense and the commitment not to become a military power. What the Japanese people want is not preparing for war, since it will only help increase military tensions in East Asia. What they really want is preparing for peace through diplomatic efforts, guided by the Constitution’s Article 9.
What actually promotes international politics is not a small number of great powers. It is government and grassroots civil society in many countries. It is therefore important to strengthen and mobilize public opinion and movements in various countries around the world. Let us stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Israeli invasion of Gaza and let us fight to restore a peaceful world order based on the UN Charter and international humanitarian law. Let us build up global solidarity and common action to re-allocate the money spent for military buildup to programs aimed at people’s wellbeing and achieve a peaceful, just and sustainable world.
The Organizing Committee of the World Conference has called for a Peace Wave action. Allow me to declare here the start of this international action. It is a global joint action taking place from August 3 through 9 for the common goal of eliminating nuclear weapons. Starting from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it will be joined by grassroots movements in every corner of the world. In Japan, a variety of initiatives are planned, including photo exhibitions on the atomic bombings and the Bikini tragedy, exhibitions of high school students’ paintings about the atomic bombings, signature collection for a ban on nuclear weapons, and meetings with Hibakusha to sharing their stories about the atomic bombing. I want to call on each and every one in Japan and the world to work together to spread the Peace Wave to prevent the use of nuclear weapons and eliminate nuclear weapons.
Before concluding, allow me to wish that the World Conference that starts today will help create a mounting tide toward the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons, and contribute to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the construction of a peace system there. I do also hope that this Conference will be a ground-breaking meeting to put pressure on the Japanese government to make Japan join the TPNW and implement peace diplomacy in line with the Constitution of Japan. Thank you.