August 6, 2003
Since 1947, the Mayor of Hiroshima has delivered a Peace Declaration on August
6, the day the US dropped the first atomic bomb, every year except 1950.
This year again, summer’s heat reminds us of the blazing hell fire that
swept over this very spot fifty-eight years ago. The world without nuclear weapons
and beyond war that our hibakusha* have sought for so long appears to be slipping
deeper into a thick cover of dark clouds that they fear at any minute could
become mushroom clouds spilling black rain. The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,
the central international agreement guiding the elimination of nuclear weapons,
is on the verge of collapse. The chief cause is US nuclear policy that, by openly
declaring the possibility of a pre-emptive nuclear first strike and calling
for resumed research into mini-nukes and other so-called “useable nuclear
weapons,” appears to worship nuclear weapons as God.
However, nuclear weapons are not the only problem. Acting as if the United Nations
Charter and the Japanese Constitution don’t even exist, the world has suddenly
veered sharply away from post-war toward pre-war mentality. As the US/UK-led
war on Iraq made clear, the assertion that war is peace is being trumpeted as
truth. Conducted with disregard for the multitudes around the world demanding
a peaceful solution through continued UN inspections, this war slaughtered innocent
women, children, and the elderly. It destroyed the environment, most notably
through radioactive contamination that will be with us for billions of years.
And the weapons of mass destruction that served as the excuse for the war have
yet to be found. However, as President Lincoln once said, “You can’t
fool all the people all the time.” Now is the time for us to focus once
again on the truth that “Darkness can never be dispelled by darkness, only
by light.” The rule of power is darkness. The rule of law is light. In
the darkness of retaliation, the proper path for human civilization is illumined
by the spirit of reconciliation born of the hibakusha’s determination that
“no one else should ever suffer as we did.”
Lifting up that light, the aging hibakusha are calling for US President George
Bush to visit Hiroshima. We all support that call and hereby demand that President
Bush, Chairman Kim Jong Il of North Korea, and the leaders of all nuclear-weapon
states come to Hiroshima and confront the reality of nuclear war. We must somehow
convey to them that nuclear weapons are utterly evil, inhumane and illegal under
international law. In the meanwhile, we expect that the facts about Hiroshima
and Nagasaki will be shared throughout the world, and that the Hiroshima-Nagasaki
Peace Study Course will be established in ever more colleges and universities.
To strengthen the NPT regime, the city of Hiroshima is calling on all members
of the World Conference of Mayors for Peace to take emergency action to promote
the abolition of nuclear weapons. Our goal is to gather a strong delegation
of mayors representing cities throughout the world to participate in the NPT
Review Conference that will take place in New York in 2005, the 60th year after
the atomic bombing. In New York, we will lobby national delegates for the start
of negotiations at the United Nations on a universal Nuclear Weapons Convention
providing for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.
At the same time, Hiroshima calls on politicians, religious professionals, academics,
writers, journalists, teachers, artists, athletes and other leaders with influence.
We must establish a climate that immediately confronts even casual comments
that appear to approve of nuclear weapons or war. To prevent war and to abolish
the absolute evil of nuclear weapons, we must pray, speak, and act to that effect
in our daily lives. The Japanese government, which publicly asserts its status
as “the only A-bombed nation,” must fulfill the responsibilities that
accompany that status, both at home and abroad. Specifically, it must adopt
as national precepts the three new non-nuclear principles - allow no production,
allow no possession, and allow no use of nuclear weapons anywhere in the world
– and work conscientiously toward an Asian nuclear-free zone. It must also
provide full support to all hibakusha everywhere, including those exposed in
“black rain areas” and those who live overseas.
On this 58th August 6, we offer our heartfelt condolences to the souls of all
atomic bomb victims, and we renew our pledge to do everything in our power to
abolish nuclear weapons and eliminate war altogether by the time we turn this
world over to our children.
Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor
The City of Hiroshima
*Survivors of the atomic bomb blast.
For more information, see <www.pcf.
city.hiroshima.jp/peacesite/>