日本被団協

About Hidankyo

HIDANKYO sent delegation by offer from peace activists in the USA.

From August 1 to 12, as the delegation, Ryuzo Katagiri, Keiji Tsuchiya and Toshiko Ueno visited Memphis, Washington D.C., Baltimore and Harrisburg, where they told their experiences of atomic bombing and appealed to eliminate nuclear weapons.

The tour was coordinated by Louise Franklin-Ramires and John Steinbach, Washington Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Committee, and Bill Akin, Mid-South Peace and Justice Center in Memphis.

Activities of the delegation

The delegation appreciated peace activists and volunteers for their heartfelt hospitality and support.
The delegation wish the desire of those peace activists would lead to intensify public opinion in the world toward nuclear free.

The delegation took a message from HIDANKYO as follows.

Message to the Friends of the U.S.A. From Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo)

August 1, 1997

Dear peace-loving friends of the U.S.A.,

The 52nd commemoration of August 1945 has come, the most abominable days for all humanity on the Earth. And this year again, with your invitation, we have come to the United States of America. We have come to tell you what really happened during the hell of August 1945 in front of our eyes, in order not to allow the devilish act to be repeated again on this Earth. We have come in order to speak about our physical pains and trauma, which have continued to torture us for the last 52 years, and to share with you the hopes and prayers for "Never Again", which were born out of the suffering of so many of us. And we have come to give our small help to your movement and efforts to create a peaceful world without nuclear weapons, for the sake of our future generations.

What happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on those days are the things that should never have happened nor caused, as long as we humans are to stay as human beings.

The brutality of the atomic bombing can never be described by any human language. It is beyond all available expressions and imagination. 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 70,000 people in Nagasaki were massacred in the flames of hell, and twice more were injured or exposed to the radiation from the bombs. Small children, the old and the sick were the first to be victimized. The corpse were piled up here and there in the open, and left for days until they got rotten and swarmed with maggots. The stench filled the city. Most corpses, which should have been cremated, did not receive proper treatment. Instead, they were just buried all together in a huge hole, or were piled up on burnt fields, sprinkled with oil, and then incinerated. Human beings were treated as if they were rotten vegetables or wastes. A single bomb completely destroyed one whole city. The survivors were not allowed to stay as humans any more, let alone the dead. Even when some injured were spotted to be alive amid the pile of corpse, there was no way to rescue them; they were just incinerated and buried all together.

The atomic bomb deprived the people of their dignity. What it created was nothing but the world of devil.

We know that this happened during the war that Japan had started. As part of the nation, we feel responsible for the fact that Japan started the war and that Japan committed numerous illegal acts and atrocities, including the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese government should make apologies for these acts, and it is responsible for providing compensation to the victims. For forty years since the establishment of the Confederation, we have been working to urge the Japanese government to acknowledge its responsibility of the Japanese government, including that of bringing about the dropping of atomic bombs. We have not achieved this goal yet, for which we apologize to you.

Nevertheless, these will not justify the dropping of the atomic bombs. Nuclear weapons are the weapons of devil. Human beings can never coexist with nuclear weapons. With their extremely atrocious nature, nuclear weapons are beyond comparison with any other weapon. Moreover, they are dreadful weapons that would lead to the annihilation of the entire humanity. No reason whatsoever can justify their existence. The advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice released last summer also admitted this fact. After so many years, our long-held appeal has recently been adopted by the mainstream of the world opinion.

The United States not only dropped the atomic bombs, but triggered off the nuclear arms race, and created a large number of nuclear test victims. The government of the United States is greatly responsible for making an apology for this and for immediately providing compensation to the victims and making efforts for the abolition of nuclear weapons. This is the belief of us the Hibakusha, which come out of our own experiences.

Hibakusha are getting old, and are dying one after another. Yet, as long as our lives last, and as long as even a single nuclear weapon exists in the world, we will continue to appeal to you:

Look straight at the reality of nuclear war! Listen to the testimonies of the Hibakusha! Abolish nuclear weapons! No more Hibakusha! Let us hand down the lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to our children!

AP corresponded Rally on August 9

Peace Activists Demonstrate in D.C

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sixty-nine people were arrested in a sit-in outside the White House as chanting anti-nuclear activists of diverse groups marched in Washington on Saturday.

The 300 or so demonstrators included religious activists, war veterans, leftists and survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings 52 years ago. Also taking part were environmentalists, child crusaders against the death penalty, "New York Workers against Fascism" and opponents of sanctions against Iraq and use of plutonium as space fuel.

Escorted by police cruisers and motorcycles, the protesters marched peacefully from Veterans Affairs Department headquarters nearly a mile to the Energy Department, manufacturer and overseer of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Chanting "President Clinton, you should know, nuclear weapons got to go!'" the colorful group was halted a block from the White House for a speeding motorcade that police said was Clinton's.

Sixty-nine members of Pax Christi, a religious peace group, were arrested after sitting on the pavement in the form of a cross outside the White House.

All were later released, including three youngsters under 18 returned to their parents uncharged, said U.S. Park Police Sgt. Peter Markland. After being warned three times to leave the payment, 65 were detained and given the option of appearing later in court or paying $50 fines. The 69th was cited for crossing a police line, Markland said.

Toshiko Ueno, 58, said in a speech outside the Energy Department she lives with bone disease and a tumor in her spinal cord caused by radiation from history's second atomic bombing at Nagasaki, Japan, 52 years ago Sunday.

Her older sister, Yaeko, was so badly disfigured she was unrecognized by her family and still has "pieces of glass in her body," Ueno said.

In trips to Korea and China, she said, "I learned that we (Japanese) were also assailants, so I expressed my heartfelt apology to victims of our past war of aggression and have become close to those people since."

Now on her first U.S. visit, she said, "I am deeply disappointed by the American people, who are supposed to be a living example of democracy" for continuing to stock nuclear weapons and for basing troops in Japan.

Ueno and Ryuzo Katagiri, 77, of Hiroshima, and Keiji Tsuchiya, 68, of Okayama, survivors of the Aug. 6, 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, have been appearing before U.S. peace groups on a tour sponsored by the Hiroshima Peace Committee and a movement of A-bomb survivors.

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