 Gensuikyo leader gets a standing-ovation in London Takakusagi Hiroshi, secretary general of the Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo), on September 11 gave a speech at the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) Conference held in London. It was the first time for a Gensuikyo representative to speak at the CND Conference as a guest speaker. A Green Party representative was another guest speaker apart from Takakusagi. While only five minutes were given to general participants, Takakusagi had about 20 minutes to speak. His speech was given a standing ovation at the conference in which CND Chair Kate Hudson, London Mayor Ken Livingstone, Former President of the International Peace Bureau Bruce Kent were present along with Labour Party parliamentarians and members of the European Parliament of the Green Party. With the 60th anniversary of A-bombings of Japan and the NPT Review Conference coming next year, Takakusagi said that the world is facing a big challenge to press nuclear weapons possessing countries to fulfill their promise made in the 2000 NPT Review Conference to eliminate their nuclear weapons. The U.S. Bush administration in its "preemptive strike strategy" gives its nuclear weapons a prominent role in order to use them for real, but is increasingly isolated from world opinion and politics, Takakusagi pointed out. He called on the audience to work together to increase the new campaign entitled "Abolition of nuclear weapons, now!" called for during the 2004 World Conference against A and H Bombs held August 2-9 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He also said that there are moves in Japan to adversely revise the war-renouncing Constitution and do away with the Three Non-Nuclear Principles of "not possessing, not manufacturing and not allowing the bringing-in of nuclear weapons". These are moves in tandem with the "preemptive strike strategy" of the U.S. Bush administration, he pointed out. However, he emphasized, since a majority of the Japanese people stand in favor of the Constitution, it can be a chance for pro-Constitution forces to prevail if the peace movement succeeds in uniting to block the moves toward militarism. Later in the day Takakusagi said, "I felt that the audience wanted to know, along with nuclear weapons issues, how to accurately see Japan's impulse toward nuclear armament in disregard of the peace Constitution and the Three Non-Nuclear Principles." The CND is a pioneering peace organization in the European peace movement, founded in 1958 under the call of British philosopher Bertrand Russell. (end) |