For the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
Letter to nulcear weapons states
Hidankyo sent a letter to the heads of nuclear-weapon states, asking to start multilateral negotiation to conclude an international treaty for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
The following is the text of the letter.
Hidankyo also sent another letter to the US President in which we called on ratifying the CTBT and abandoning its missile defense strategies.
July 2001
Dear Mr. President / Prime Minister,
We are the survivors who narrowly escaped from the hell of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nuclear weapons are the devilish weapons at the top of absolutely evil weapons of massacre and cruelty and cannot coexist with humanity. We must lose no time in abolishing nuclear weapons. We have frequently written letters to Your Excellency and repeatedly requested Your Excellency to kindly take initiative to abolish nuclear weapons.
In particular, last August under the name of "Global Hibakusha Solidarity Meeting", we sent Your Excellency the joint appeal of Japanese A-bomb victims and victims of nuclear weapons throughout the world. We sincerely ask Your Excellency to understand the pains and wishes of the Hibakusha upon reading the enclosed appeal.
We greatly appreciated that on the NPT review conference of last May, five nuclear-weapon states including your country agreed to make the "unequivocal undertaking" to accomplish total elimination of their nuclear arsenals and reconfirmed it at the UN General Assembly Session last autumn. We have been watching your efforts afterwards with a great expectation.
The necessary process to implement this promise would only require that any one of the head of the five nuclear-weapon states take initiatives to start a concrete proposal on the abolition of the nuclear weapons in their own states and to call for multilateral negotiation. Up until today, however, none of the heads of five nuclear states have appealed for multilateral negotiation nor have started to take a concrete action towards fulfillment of the "unequivocal undertaking". This has increased our apprehension. Under these circumstances, it is of dire importance that Your Excellency play this role.
Prime Minister,
On behalf of tens of thousands of the dead in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, together with millions victims of nuclear weapons throughout the world, we sincerely hope with a great expectation that you:
Begin to take a concrete action immediately for abolishing nuclear weapons in your country, as the first nation among other nuclear-weapon states to take initiatives to sweep away all nuclear weapons from the globein an early stage of the 21st century for the survival of humanity.
Please appeal, on top of that, for the start of multilateral negotiation to conclude an international treaty for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Very truly yours,
Sunao Tsuboi Co-chairperson
Senji Yamaguchi Co-chairperson
Nori Tohei Co-chairperson
We have sent a letter with the same context to the heads of all the nuclear-weapon states.