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From monthly paper "Hidankyo" - May 1998

Protest aganist the US subcritical test

The US third subcritical test was conducted on March 25 (early morning on 26th, Japan time) at the Nevada Test Site.

15 Hidankyo members visited the US Embassy in Tokyo and strongly protested against the testing. In front of the gates, Mariko Ida, Executive member of Hidankyo, read a letter against the testing to President Clinton aloud and the participants called out "Cancel all nuclear tests!", "No more Hibakusha!", "Stop the threat of the use of nuclear weapons!" and "Abolish all nuclear weapons!".

Local Hidankyo also protested against the test. The following are some reports on the actions.

Hidankyo in Aichi Prefecture, central part of Honshu Island, marched to the US consulate with 100 participants and handed a letter of protect to the staff member.

In Sapporo, Hokkaido, the northern island, Hidankyo members visited the US consulate, where they handed a letter to the staff member, then made appeal to people in the park of downtown.

In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Hibakusha went on sit-in, protesting against the test.

In Kumamoto, the southern island, Hidankyo members protested against the test as well as called on the India's new government not to induct nuclear weapons.

Hidankyo called on the India's government

The new government of India announced the defense policy that the govrnment would "exercise the option to induct nuclear weapons".

Hidankyo sent a letter to Prime Minister Vajpayee in which Hidankyo called on his government to change the policy.

In the letter, Hidankyo stressed "to induct nuclear weapons runs counter to the world opinion demanding the abolition of nuclear weapons" and "never create Hibakusha any more".

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The letter to prime minister of India is as follows.

March 31 1998

Mr. Atal B. Vajpayee
Prime Minister of the Republic of India

We congratulate on your inauguration as Prime Minister. We hope that your government will bring to Indian people peaceful, affluent and prosperous life.

In taking the oath on March 19, you announced that your government would "exercise the option to induct nuclear weapons" to "retain the security and sovereignty of India". We, Hibakusha in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the first A-bomb sufferers in the world, express our deep regret to the new defense policy and call on you to change the nuclear deterrence policy without delay so that Hibakusha will not be created any more.

India was once considered as a country possessing nuclear weapons due to its successful nuclear test. In fact, some say that India's possession of nuclear weapons motivated Pakistan to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it was said the India government abandoned the possession of nuclear weapons without joining arms race between the USA and the Soviet Union.

Recent public opinion in the world on nuclear arms has been demanding not "reduction" but "abolition". We consider that India has received support among non-nuclear weapons states for its position which has rejected to sign the CTBT and NPT as unequal treaties unless they pursue the direction of abolition of nuclear weapons.

However, we cannot help but express our concern that your new defense policy which would "exercise the option to induct nuclear weapons" will confront the public opinion in favor of abolition of nuclear weapons and may cause a nuclear arms race in Pakistan and China. According to the press, you stated that your government " has no concrete plan to induct nuclear weapons". We call on you to review your defense policy and maintain the policy for the abolition of nuclear weapons as India has pursued so far.

On behalf of Japan Confederation of A- & H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations

Sakae Ito, Co-chairperson

Senji Yamaguchi, Co-chairperson

Takeshi Ito, Co-chairperson

Nori Tohei, Secretary General of Hidankyo

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