Japan Gensuikyo calls on U.S. to cancel all its plans to use nuclear weapons and shift to nuclear weapons abolition

The Japan Council against A & H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) on March 12 sent the following letter to U.S. President George W. Bush:

The dangerous contents of the U.S. Department of Defense's "Nuclear Posture Review" are now coming to light. Press reports confirmed that in addition to Iraq, Iran and North Korea, whom President Bush in his State of the Union address this year labeled as an "axis of evil," Libya, Syria and even China and Russia were also included in the targets of the US plan for the use of nuclear weapons.

In addition to the ongoing war on Afghanistan being waged on the ground of a response to September 11 terrorist attacks, the Review is said to underline that nuclear weapons may be required in some future "Arab-Israeli crisis," to "retaliate against chemical or biological attacks" as well as "surprising military developments" of an unspecified nature. It even calls for swift development of new types of nuclear weapons.

As regards the eradication of terrorism, it is by nature a problem to be addressed as a matter of international crime, and the U.S. acts of war, which are causing untold numbers of casualties of innocent Afghans, must immediately be halted. It is totally insane to develop a plan to use of nuclear weapons on the grounds of preparing for international conflicts, and still more for such absurdity of "future uncertainty."

At the same time, the present development reveals the dangerous nature of the policy of the Japanese Government that has unquestionably accepted every bit of pressure from the U.S. government since the inauguration of President George W. Bush, and especially after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The successive LDP-led Japanese governments have defended and accepted U.S. nuclear arsenals on the grounds that it provides "deterrence" or "nuclear umbrella." The US nuclear plan, however, is not confined merely to "deter" anything, but is aimed to use nuclear weapons in actual international conflicts. It must further be noted that the Bush administration is promoting the policy nowhere other than in Asia.

We demand that the U.S. government should make public the entire Nuclear Posture Review and immediately scrap the whole plan on the use of nuclear weapons. Also we strongly demand that the Japanese government should stop supporting the U.S. nuclear and war plans once and for all, to strictly abide by the Three Non-Nuclear Principles and give up legislation of "laws on contingencies", which would precipitate Japan into U.S.-initiated war, involving even a danger of nuclear weapons being used. (end)