Nihon Hidankyo Holds Rally before NPT Review Conference

Tokyo, April 17 (Jiji Press)–Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, held a rally in Tokyo on Friday ahead of a review conference of the signatories to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, scheduled to be held in New York from April 27. Some 300 hibakusha atomic bomb survivors and others from across the country gathered in the Japanese capital’s Nagatacho government district to demand that the government of the only country to have suffered atomic bombings in war to play a leading role for a world without nuclear weapons. “The global situation is becoming worse and worse,” Nihon Hidankyo co-chair Terumi Tanaka, 93, said. “I hope conference participants will agree not to use nuclear weapons.” A Foreign Ministry official who attended the event said that Tokyo will do its part so that the conference is meaningful, adding, “The NPT regime is the sole universal framework” for controlling the world’s nuclear arsenal. Hibakusha also took to the streets in front of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons and opposing war. “Permanent members (of the U.N. Security Council) with nuclear weapons are waging aggressive wars,” Nihon Hidankyo Secretary-General Jiro Hamasumi, 80, said. “The very existence of the NPT itself is being questioned.” Nihon Hidankyo is slated to send a delegation of hibakusha to the NPT review conference. Hamasumi is expected to make a statement at a session organized by a nongovernmental organization, and the group will hold an exhibit on the atomic bombings at the U.N. headquarters. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]