Closing Plenary/ Hiroshima Day Rally, August 6
2024 World Conference against A and H Bombs
Maribel Hernandez
Alianza por el Desarme Nuclear
Spain
Minnasan konnichiwa. It is such an honor to be here on this remarkable city which inspires all of us working for nuclear disarmament and peace all over the world.
Ten years ago, in Barcelona, I had the chance to interview Susumu Tsuboi an 85-year-old hibakusha who, generously, shared his memories and paintings with me. Susumu was wearing a pair of sneakers that are produced in my hometown, Elche, in the south of the Valencia region. I didn’t tell him, but to me this marked the beginning of a deep personal connection with the Hibakusha and their tirelessly work to achieve a nuclear weapon-free world.
At that time, I had no idea that behind the scenes, a powerful international campaign to achieve a Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was underway and that today I would be standing here to share our experience in Spain. In my country, in 1966, 58 years ago, a nuclear accident changed the history of Palomares, a small rural town in Andalusian region, in the south of Spain. An American bomber collided with the mother plane that was supplying it with fuel. As a result, the four thermonuclear bombs it was carrying fell. Each bomb was 70 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima. It was pure luck that they were not armed and there was no nuclear explosion. However, two of the bombs fell without parachutes and, because of the impact, dispersed their plutonium load contaminating Palomares. The local population was neither evacuated nor informed of the danger of radioactivity, in the same way that the nuclear powers have treated indigenous populations of the place they chose to test their atomic bombs, such as the Marshall Islands, Nevada or the Australian aboriginal lands, among others. At that time, Spain was living under the dictatorship of Franco and the issue of the accident was shelved and the page was turned. People of Palomares have since experienced the nuclear stigma and are still waiting for the contaminated land to be fully cleaned up.
In Spain nuclear weapons ara forbiden by law. My country does not have produce or host nuclear weapons but, ironically, it continues to turn its back on the TPNW and assumes NATO’s nuclear position. That is why last year a group of civil society organizations decided to come together and unite our efforts and experiences to work for nuclear disarmament and campaign to urge the Spanish government to sign the TPNW. Our Alliance for Nuclear Disarmament is a grassroots movement. We work to raise awareness about the existence of nuclear weapons, to amplify the voices of hibakusha and nuclear survivors to people in our country, because action stems from knowledge.
We know it is not easy. However, we also know that when ordinary people – your neighbor, your children’s teacher, anyone- learn about the humanitarian and environmental consequences of nuclear weapons they understand the inconsistency of our country’s postion and, in the best-case, they decide to join our Alliance and work towards this comon goal.
Minnasan, we are living difficult times. It is not new that the world faces an unprecedented nuclear threat, the situation of highest tension since World War II. Just a few years ago the world’s nuclear leaders would agree and reaffirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and should never be fought. In less than three years, they have gone from rejecting nuclear war to preparing for it.
Yes, we are facing challenging times but there is no room for a paralyzing pessimism. It is time to strengthen resistance and unite our voices and efforts globally. The existence of a Treaty that prohibits nuclear weapons and which in such a short time has garnered solid support serves as a beacon of light. The foundations upon which to build a new order are in place, and so are those who defend them. Here we stand. Nuclear weapons do not discriminate. They can affect everyone everywhere. Therefore, it is everyone’s responsibility, regardless of where they live, to do their best to eliminate this threat.
On behalf of the nuclear disarmament movement in Spain, we call on our government, the government of Japan, all NATO member countries, and the rest of the world that have not yet joined the TPNW to sign the Treaty and abandon the dangerous strategy of nuclear deterrence before it is too late. The current crisis and on going wars demands brave and urgent actions. Joining the treaty is an act of justice and recognition to the stories and struggles of the hibakusha and the victims of nuclear tests who, today, 79 years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, continue to inspire us and drive our work to achieve a world of peace, free of nuclear weapons. No more Hiroshima. No more Nagasaki. No more War. Arigatoo Gozaimashita.