Living with Hiroshima

In the NPT Review Conference

From May 2 to 27, 2005, the NPT Review Conference that meets every five　years, was held in New York. It drew particular attention from the world amid growing concern over the moves of India, Pakistan and North Korea that had not signed the NPT yet.

On April 28, New York City was literally a melting pot. I heard that more than 1000 hibakusha from Hiroshima and Nagasaki had come to N.Y., but I, also a hibakusha, was not counted in them. It would be impossible to count how many hibakusha gathered.

We needed an ID to get into the U.N. building. There was a long line at the entrance because of the conference. I got an ID, dangled it from my neck and I was ready.

I paid a courtesy call to Nobuyasu Abe, the UN Undersecretary General, who was in charge of disarmament affairs. While we told him the purpose of our mission and what we had done, he told us about the problems of weapons of mass destruction and power games between nations concerning disarmament. He said, "As the conference has a unanimity rule in principle, it is clear that the nuclear powers will not participate in the voting. Considering the present circumstances, it will be hard to move forward to nuclear disarmament. We need to get the nuclear powers involved more actively in it. I wish we could at least move toward the strengthening of the IAEA inspections." Then he advised us to make contact with the foreign ambassadors to Japan and obtain their understanding of our peace activities. He also suggested that we should encourage young people to take over the peace movement.

Several workshops addressing starvation, discrimination, education and so on were held in the building. A group from Hiroshima and Nagasaki displayed pictures of the A-bombing and had a paper crane section where they taught how to fold paper cranes and talked about the brutality of nuclear weapons. A few people had interest in the Hiroshima-Nagasaki issues, but most people just passed by the booth. It seemed that people were just busy with their own issues.

On May 4, at the height of the NPT Review Conference, I got a seat in the public gallery of the Assembly Hall, because ten people, including Tadatoshi Akiba, Hiroshima mayor, were to make speeches. The Hiroshima mayor, Nagasaki mayor, Yoko Ono and several hibakusha were to make speeches on behalf of us in the U.N. Headquarters. I had greatly expected that their speeches would attract much attention from the world.

However, each country's representatives had gone out one after another before the speeches started, and only about thirty people remained in the hall. I was discouraged at the sight. Someone who was familiar with the NPT Review Conference told me that speeches about Hiroshima and Nagasaki tragedies were not in the official program and were held during the scheduled lunch time. It was only Japanese people, anti-nuclear activists and media staff who listened eagerly to the speeches. I heard that these speeches got headlines in Japan.

Members could not reach agreement at the NPT Review Conference that year. Is the abolition of nuclear weapons just an illusion?

a monument in front of the U.N. building