Develop movement for abolition of nuclear weapons based on NPT Review Conference outcome

Japan Press Weekly

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Develop movement for abolition of nuclear weapons based on NPT Review Conference outcome

Akahata editorial

The 2010 World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs is coming up next a month. The International Meeting and the World Conference ? Hiroshima will be held from August 2 to 6, followed by the World Conference ? Nagasaki on August 8 and 9.

Taking place in the 65th year since the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this year's World Conference draws attention as a place for the world peace movement to discuss its future course in response to the outcome of the NPT Review Conference.

Concrete action plan

The NPT Review Conference held in New York last May has again shown that the abolition of nuclear weapons is the world's major call that cannot be stopped. It confirmed the need to "make special efforts to establish the necessary framework to achieve" a world without nuclear weapons and urged the nuclear-weapons states to "undertake further efforts" to this end. This is a significant step toward the elimination of nuclear weapons.

What is needed now is a concrete action plan to realize a nuclear weapons-free world.

In the Review Conference, many non-nuclear weapon states demanded that negotiations for the abolition of nuclear weapons be started while the proposal by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for a convention to ban all nuclear weapons caught worldwide attention. These moves are what the World Conference and the international anti-nuclear movement have been calling for all along.

Nearly seven million people in the international signature drive expressed their demand for a world without nuclear weapons. Seeking the abolition of nuclear weapons, the cooperation between Hibakusha, the Japanese and global anti-nuclear weapons movements, and the world's governments brought about the advance made in the 2010 NPT Review Conference.

Meeting with opposition from some nuclear weapons states, the Conference could not reach an agreement on the making of a specific roadmap for negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons within a set period of time. More efforts to increase international public awareness are required more than ever in order to press these nuclear weapons states to embark on a path towards a world free from nuclear weapons.

The Conference agreed that each NPT member state will report on its progress in working to establish a nuclear-free world in 2014 and hammer out a concrete plan in 2015. In response to this development, the 2010 World Conference against A and H Bombs must clearly specify the prospective of the anti-nuclear weapons movement.

Japan as atomic-bombed country

The government of Japan, the only A-bombed country in the world, must take a lead in the international effort for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Japan, however, does not fulfill this role in the international community because it depends on the U.S. nuclear umbrella provided under the Japan-U.S. military alliance. The need is for Japan to abandon the Japan-U.S. secret pact on the bringing in of U.S. nuclear weapons to Japan and to realize a nuclear-free country by fully implementing the Three Non-Nuclear Principles.

The various activities of Hibakusha from Hiroshima and Nagasaki gained much attention and inspired many member states during the Conference. Those 1,500 Japanese people who went to NYC on the occasion of the NPT Review Conference are very active in each locality in the anti-nuclear weapons movement. The movement in Japan, the source of the success of the World Conference against A and H Bombs, is assuming a great responsibility in the concerted international effort to establish a world without nuclear weapons.

- Akahata, July 12, 2010