Declaration of the International Meeting
The atomic bombs used by the United States of America on August 6 and 9, 73 years ago brought
on the unprecedented tragedies to Hiroshima and Nagasaki that the humans had ever experienced in history. The two cities were totally ruined in an instant, and the lives of some 210,000 people were lost by the end of the year. The Hibakusha who barely survived the moment have been tormented by the after-effects of the bombs, including radiation. The nuclear weapons, which cause catastrophic
humanitarian consequences, should never be used again for any reason whatsoever. Assembled here in Hiroshima, we decry that nuclear weapons remain the greatest threat to the survival of the human race and therefore call for actions to completely eliminate them without any further delay.
Our friends in Hiroshima, who were hit by the recent record-breaking heavy rain, made determined
and dedicated efforts to make this conference possible, while at the same time engaged in the relief
and recovery work in the extreme heat. We express our deep appreciation and unlimited solidarity to
them for these efforts.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) adopted by the UN conference on
July 7, 2017 marked a historic step forward towards a world without nuclear weapons. During the year
since then, civil society movements, including Hibakusha, joined forces with governments that support
the treaty to make headway toward achieving the total abolition of nuclear weapons on the strength of
the TPNW.
With the TPNW open for signature and ratification, conflicts between the countries that stand in
favor and those that resist and oppose it are getting sharper.
Nuclear powers, claiming that the “nuclear deterrence” is essential to global security and
denouncing the TPNW, are modernizing their nuclear arsenals and strengthening their policy to use
them. The Trump Administration reinforced its readiness to use nuclear weapons in its new “Nuclear
Posture Review” and is promoting the development of low-yield nuclear weapons. The Putin
Government of Russia, too, is developing new nuclear weapons, as well as the doctrine of the first use
of its tactical nuclear weapons. The rekindled nuclear arms race between the two is evidence that the
“nuclear deterrence” endangers security, and does not ensure it. The “unequivocal undertaking” of the
“complete elimination of their nuclear arsenals”, which nuclear weapon states accepted in 2000 in the
framework of the NPT, and the “special effort to establish the framework” for it agreed in 2010 should
be honored.
The trend for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, however, is steadily growing as a
mainstream in the world. Nothing can prevent the TPNW from entering into force. The nuclear
powers’ resistance is neither firmly grounded nor has it any prospect for the future. It is evident that
the doctrine of “nuclear deterrence” based on the assumption to actually use nuclear weapons, cannot
but cause irrevocable damage to humanity. As seen in the voting results of the relevant UN
resolutions, those who support the argument to regard nuclear weapons as necessary for their security
are limited to the nuclear powers themselves and their allies. The nuclear deterrence doctrine is not
persuasive and is further losing ground.
The key to advancing to “a world without nuclear weapons” is the development of public
support and movement. The world is now keen to listen to the appeal of the Hibakusha, and the role of
civil society in the international arena is dramatically increasing. If we build further on such
cooperation between civil society and governments that led to the adoption of the TPNW, we can
make headway by overcoming various obstacles. Many recent polls show that the majority of the
citizens want their governments to join the TPNW, and large numbers of local governments and
assemblies also urge its signing and ratification. It is particularly important to build up the movements
and the public pressure in the countries possessing nuclear weapons or staying under the “nuclear
umbrella”.
With the ROK-DPRK Summit and the US-DPRK Summit, the historic move toward the denuclearization and the establishment of a peace regime in the Korean Peninsula has started. Weheartily welcome this development. The World Conference against A and H Bombs has consistently called for the peaceful settlement of the crisis. The present development is supported by the opinion of the people around the world for peace and against nuclear weapons. The driving force to complete this process also lies in public opinion. We call on all the parties concerned to engage in negotiations in
good faith to reach the declared goals and to implement the points agreed. If the hostility beginning
with the Korean War is ended and the North East Asia turned to a base of dispatch of messages for
peace and denuclearization, its positive impact on the development of the whole Asia and the rest of
the world will be immeasurable.
The creation and the consolidation of nuclear weapon-free zones and achieving the early entry
into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty remain important. Convening of an international
conference for the establishment of a zone free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in
the Middle East, unanimously resolved by the 1995 NPT Review Conference and further agreed by the
2010 NPT Review Conference, as well as achieving denuclearization and peace in the region is an
urgent task. Given that the US Trump Administration has violated the JCPOA, the agreement with
Iran, we will hold fast to calling for the diplomatic solution of the problem. The peaceful settlement of
regional disputes is crucial to moving forward to “a world without nuclear weapons”. We call for a
solution to the Palestinian issue based on the right to self-determination and justice. We further call for
an end to the use of force and military intervention in Syria and intensified diplomatic efforts to help
achieve the settlement of the civil war through political dialogue.
We express our solidarity with the movement for a nuclear-free, peaceful Japan. Now more than
ever Japan is urged to play the role befitting the only A-bombed country. The Government of Japan,
however, is eliciting both disappointment and criticism by staunchly opposing the TPNW. It should
sign and ratify the treaty immediately. The problem at the root of this attitude is its deep reliance on
the so-called “nuclear umbrella”, the extended nuclear deterrence provided by the United States. As
the country that knows the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan should firmly refuse the policy
that assumes the use of nuclear weapons. The build-up of US bases in Japan, forced to proceed under
the pretext of the “threat of North Korea” should stop immediately. We express our solidarity to the
people of Okinawa and demand that the ongoing plan of constructing a new US base at Henoko, which
infringes the dignity of the Okinawan people, should be scrapped immediately. Diplomacy based on
and honoring Article 9 of the Constitution, which declares the renunciation of war and the possession
of war potentials, is the right way to join the current for peace in Asia and the rest of the world.
To respond to the desire of the Hibakusha for seeing a world without nuclear weapons in their
lifetime, and to actually move the world in that direction, building the public support and the
movement is now all the more important. To defeat the “nuclear deterrence” doctrine, the key is to
reveal the inhuman nature of nuclear weapons. It is crucial for the Hibakusha and civil society,
together with younger generation, to urgently appeal for the achievement of the complete elimination
of nuclear weapons while endeavoring to make the damage and aftereffects of the A-bombings widely
known.
In addition to urging national governments to join the TPNW, we must expand our cooperation
with various other movements as well as the efforts made on the governmental level, thus further
developing cooperation between civil society movements and governments.
Now is the time to build a grand-scale movement to open a wide path to “a nuclear weapon-free
world”, overcoming the resistance of pro-nuclear forces. While pressing for the earliest possible entry
into force of the TPNW, in view of the 2020 NPT Review Conference, let us urge the five nuclear
weapon states to implement all the agreements they have thus far accepted and fulfill their
responsibility and obligations under Article 6 to conduct nuclear disarmament negotiations. Following
Pyeongchang, the Olympic Games will take place in Asia in succession (Tokyo 2020 in summer and
Beijing 2022 in winter). Let us use these opportunities to build a peace regime in North East Asia, as
well as a nuclear weapon-free Korean Peninsula, to make this region a foundation for sending out
messages for a peaceful world free of nuclear weapons.
We propose the following actions around the world:
– With the international campaign to collect hundreds of millions of signatures in support of the
Hibakusha Appeal by 2020, the 75th year of the atomic bombing, as our core action, let us develop a
variety of actions and international cooperation calling for a nuclear weapon- free world. Many more
opportunities should be created to exhibit A-bomb photo panels and hear the testimonies of the
Hibakusha, combining them with nuclear disarmament actions planned in each country. Let us plan
international joint actions on such occasions as the disarmament deliberations of the 73rd Session of
the UNGA (from September through December 2018) and the Third PrepCom (April-May 2019 in
New York) of the 2020 NPT Review Conference.
– For the relief and solidarity with the Hibakusha, we support their demand for justice and the
State compensation. We support the nuclear test victims in their demand for international relief. We
call for relief to the victims of TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi NPP accidents and for all other nuclear
victims. We will work in solidarity with the movement demanding ZERO nuclear power plants. Let
us support the victims of the Agent Orange, depleted uranium, chemical weapons and other war
victims.
– Let us call for the peaceful settlement of regional conflicts. Let us unfold actions for the drastic
cut in military expenditures and for the reduction and dismantling of foreign military bases.
– Let us expand solidarity and cooperation with movements for environmental protection, to stop
global warming, eradication of poverty and the social gap, improvement of the living standards and
social welfare, an end to all forms of discrimination and realization of gender equality and social
justice, and for the protection of human rights and democracy.
The adoption of the TPNW demonstrates that the world is moving from the superpower domination
to a new era where all nations will decide on common issues facing the world on an equal footing. It
will be the era where civil society will be able to contribute to the solution of internationally important
problems by forming public opinion. With deep conviction on such developments, let us move
forward to achieving a world without nuclear weapons.
August 4, 2018
International Meeting, 2018 World Conference against
Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs
In a Perilous Time
Joseph Gerson
Japan Council Against A- & H- Bombs International Conference
Hiroshima, August 2, 2019
“Freedom of thought is the only guarantee against an infection
of mankind by mass myths, which, in the hands of treacherous
hypocrites and demagogues, can be transformed into bloody
dictatorships.
– Andrei Sakharov
I want to thank Gensuikyo for the opportunity to return to the World Conference. It is a pleasure to be joined by my experienced and dedicated U.S. friends and colleagues. I also want to take this opportunity to thank Taka-san for his important contributions to our Two Minutes to Midnight conference in New York in May.
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-Bombings
As a U.S. American, I want to acknowledge that, on its own terms and by the standards of World Court’s advisory opinion on the use and threatened use of nuclear weapons, the indiscriminate A-bombings here and in Nagasaki were nothing less that unconscionable crimes against humanity. While making no excuses for Japanese militarism and imperial aggressions, we should remember that in the months prior to the A-bombings the Japanese government attempted to surrender on terms the U.S. ultimately accepted AFTER the atomic bombings: unconditional surrender with the exception of the Emperor remaining on his throne. Most senior U.S. military leaders thought that the A-bombings were unnecessary and wrong.
Craven domestic political calculations, racism, and bureaucratic momentum contributed to Truman’s decision to usher in the nuclear age with the annihilation of the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but as General Groves, who led the Manhattan Project remarked in 1943, the A-bomb project was no longer about Germany or Japan. It was about Russia. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were vaporized, incinerated, poisoned and traumatized to ensure that the U.S. would not have to share influence with the Soviet Union in Northern China, Manchuria, and Korea. And, Truman thought that the A-bomb gave him a “a hammer” with which he could dominate the Kremlin with the threat of nuclear annihilation.
Despite the Hibakusha’s fundamental truth that human beings and nuclear weapons cannot coexist, the illusion that nuclear weapons have worked and can serve as the ultimate enforcer of empire, compounded by lies and mistaken beliefs about nuclear deterrence, have repeatedly brought us to the brink of nuclear omnicde and driven nuclear weapons proliferation. In Helsinki, Vladimir Putin again illuminated the madness and injustice of nuclear apartheid. “As major nuclear powers,” he said, “we bear special responsibility for maintaining international security.” He and Trump believe that their nuclear arsenals give them the right to intimidate and dictate how the world’s nations and peoples live and possibly die.
A Perilous Time
Friends, we meet in a perilous time of rising great power tensions, the ascendency of right-wing autocracies, uncertainties, and renewed nuclear and high-tech arms races. This is compounded by the reality that there are no longer any givens in U.S. foreign and military policies or to the future of liberal democracy in the U.S.
The Trump administration is marked by chaos. Following Trump’s secretive summit with Putin and the political and media circus that followed, Trump was confronted by his most senior staff who insisted that he deny or reverse a number of statements and commitments he had made in Helsinki, from possible Russian interrogation of the former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow to his support for a referendum in Eastern Ukraine. Pompeo and Bolton are at odds on the Korea negotiations. And, the Pentagon is reeling from Trump’s unexpected and whimsical orders, musings about reductions of troops in Germany, his order to organize a costly Kremlin-like military parade on Armistice day, and his announcement of the creation of a new space command.
Independent of Trump, the gears of empire grind on. The Pentagon budget has been increased by an amount equal Russia’s total military budget. Despite Trump’s embrace of Putin, the Pentagon’s new National Strategy prioritizes preparations for great power war against China or Russia which “challenge American power, influence and interests.” This explains the $1.2 trillion spending plan for the new generation of U.S. offensive nuclear weapons and their delivery systems and Trump’s new “Space Command” to dominate Earth from space. As we saw in Trump’s theatrical summitry with Kim Jung-un, his trade war tariffs and denunciation of the European Union as a foe, in Trump’s American First Empire, the only good allies are those who know their proper place as vassals. More than his predecessors, Trump embraces dictators and authoritarian rulers from Putin and the Saudis, to Orban in Hungary and Duterte in the Philippines. And while he describes his 391-word vague agreement with Kim Jung-un as a “good deal”, he calls the fully implemented P5+1 deal with Iran a “bad deal” and has violated it. We’re now told that there is no reason to rush complete North Korean denuclearization, while the unspoken commitment to regime change in Iran to restore U.S. regional and global U.S. hegemony is an urgent priority.
Meanwhile, in the tradition of dictators, truth, the rule of law, organized labor, citizenship, and even the right to vote are being attacked by Trump and his minions. He blatantly contradicts himself in the same sentence and averages 6.5 recorded lies per day. From Charlottesville to Budapest and the Kremlin, Trump embraces and encourages white and ostensibly Christian supremacists. His assaults on the press, science and his separation of families, his imprisonment of children in cages and the packing of courts with right-wing ideologues have brought us to a proto-fascist moment reminiscent of the rise of European fascism in the 1920s and 30s.
During the 2016 election campaign, Trump said “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody…and I wouldn’t lose any voters…” Now, with his one-on-one meeting with Putin – the details of which have been kept secret from his most senior advisors and the U.S. people, combined with his Helsinki statement that he trusts Putin more than U.S. intelligence services, his description of the press as an enemy of the people, and the failure of Republicans to call him to account, Trump may be doing the political equivalent of pulling that trigger on Fifth Avenue. Some liberals and conservatives are warning that the lesson Trump may take from Helsinki and from Republican silence is that he can shut down the special counsel’s inquiry into possible election collusion with Russia and related corruptions. This would ignite massive demonstrations that could result in the declaration of martial law, and the emergence of an Erdogan type dictatorship a country that was once the model and inspiration for liberal democracy. Remember, Trump is the President who failed to fully condemn Nazi violence – including a murder – in Charlottesville a year ago and recently pardoned armed right-wingers who had been convicted of arson.
In this climate, it should be no surprise that we are talking about the lessons from the collapse of the Weimar Republic in 1933. We have organized many massive protests across the country – especially in the wake of the imprisonment of children and babies. The civilized world is rightly alienated by, and increasingly isolating, the United States.
I should note that in many ways, Trump is a symptom, not the sole cause, of the American crisis. With the United States’ Pax America identity increasingly besieged by the country’s relative decline in economic, military and cultural power and influence, the cognitive dissonance of no longer being #1 has reinforced ancient currents of racism and national chauvinism. This has been compounded by the Supreme Court’s removal of limits on what the superrich can spend in elections, by the post 9-11 militarist culture which permeates nearly all sectors of American life and resulted in the military becoming the country’s most widely respected institution. And, of course, there are the “subversive tentacles” of the military-industrial complex. Our political crisis is thus systemic. Impeachment of Trump would leave us with all these forces still in place, with Pence in power, and the increasingly militarized mainstream of the Democratic Party pursuing confrontations with both Russia and China.
Two Minutes to Midnight
All of this is deeply related to continuing U.S. preparations for omnicidal nuclear war. This past winter, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists sent the world a warning by moving the hands of their Doomsday Clock to two minutes to midnight. This is the closest to apocalyptic nuclear war since 1953 and worse than during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Why the warning? They cited the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, decrying increased US reliance on nuclear weapons; its staggering investments in new nuclear weapons that are driving “modernization” of the world’s other nuclear arsenals; the return to Cold War rhetoric and the total absence of US-Russian arms control negotiations. They warned about the dangerous lack of coherent US foreign and military policies that undermine global security, North Korea’s nuclear weapons program; South Asian rivalries; Trump’s threat to the nuclear deal with Iran, and climate change.
The NPR follows on the Pentagon’s new National Strategy that prioritizes preparations for great power war and includes a more aggressive U.S. first-strike nuclear war-fighting doctrine. It builds on Obama’s commitments to deploy new and more usable B-61 nuclear weapons to Europe. The Navy’s sea-launched ballistic missiles will be armed with still more devastating first-strike W-76-1 warheads. And the mandate to replace the entire nuclear triad remains in place. New is a sea-launched cruise missile and Trident submarines ballistic missiles armed with Hiroshima-like A-bombs. And, to compensate for China’s increasing area denial capabilities in the western Pacific, there is to be a standoff, air-launched, nuclear armed cruise missiles that can be fired against the Chinese military and civilians from thousands of miles away.
Perhaps the most dangerous element of Trump’s $1.2 trillion NPR is the blurring the distinction between conventional and nuclear war and the increased role for nuclear weapons in U.S. war fighting strategies. The initial leaked version of the NPR mandated first-strike attacks in response to devastating cyber-attacks as well as to chemical or biological weapons attacks.
Even before Trump’s NPR, Daniel Ellsberg pointed to continuities in U.S. nuclear doctrine: Thousands of nuclear weapons on hair trigger alert. The U.S. retains its first strike policy. So-called “extended deterrence” Europe and East Asia relies on first use. U.S. doctrine calls for launch on warning. U.S. policies have “always precluded an effective nonproliferation campaign.” And, the president is not the only person who can launch the country’s nuclear weapons.
The U.S. is not the only culprit. All of the other nuclear weapons states are upgrading their nuclear arsenals. There is increasing debate in right-wing German circles about the creation of a German or European bomb. Iran will unleash its cyclotrons if the P5+1 deal collapses. Saudi Arabia is putting its nuclear infrastructure in place. And, the Turkish Labor Party reports that Erdogan wants a nuclear weapon.
Singapore – After Fire and Fury
We’ll be discussing the fraught US-Korean diplomacy on Sunday, but we should appreciate that President Moon’s inspired Olympic diplomacy and that the Singapore summit prevented – at least for the time being – a catastrophic war, walking Trump back from his incendiary fire and fury nuclear threats. The summit also made it possible for Seoul and Pyongyang to proceed in “determining the destiny of the Korean nation on their own accord.”
As we think about North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, and the threat it poses to Japan, South Korea and other countries, we need to recognize that it reflects fear. Even as we criticize Pyongyang’s hideous human rights record, we need to acknowledge that Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons grew from the trauma of Japanese conquest and colonialism, the devastating Korean War, U.S. and South Korean regime change commitments, repeated U.S. preparations and threats of first strike nuclear attacks, and the failures of U.S. diplomacy, beginning with the Clinton and Bush I failures to implement the 1994 Agreed Framework, Bush II’s vetoing Kim Dae Jung’s Sunshine policy and rejection of the comprehensive agreement negotiated by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Perry, and the Obama administration’s “benign neglect.” As Perry and the renowned historian Bruce Cumings explain, the purposes of North Korea’s nuclear program are to preserve Kim dynasty and the country’s independence.
But the diplomacy is fraught. Bolton insists complete North Korean nuclear denuclearization needs to take place within a year, while Pompeo says meaningful progress must be made within two years, and Trump says he is in no hurry. Kim Jung-un has denounced Pompeo’s “gangster” demands – apparently a rejection of U.S. demands for serious denuclearization steps before the U.S. relaxes sanctions – is now demanding a U.S. commitment to replacing the Armistice with a peace treaty before he makes serious concessions. And, contrary to U.S. expectations of immediate gratification, Dr. Siegfried S. Hecker – former head of Los Alamos and the US physicist with greatest exposure to DPRK nuclear infrastructure, has argued that given the size of that infrastructure, its complete destruction could take fifteen years.
While some doubt the seriousness of Kim Jung-Un’s denuclearization commitments, Joel Wit, who has played a leading role in US negotiations with the DPRK since 1993, reports that “Everyone underestimates the momentum behind what North Korea is doing. It’s not a charm offensive or a tactical trick.” In 2013, when Obama didn’t have a potential negotiating partner in South Korea, DPRK diplomats informed the US that they would give up nuclear weapons in exchange for an end to the United States hostile approach. They said their build up would be of “limited duration” until better relations with U.S. were possible. And they envisioned three stages in response to the U.S. removing nuclear threat and ending sanctions: a freeze on nuclear weapons development; disabling key facilities & nuclear weapons; and mutual diplomatic recognition.
The day following the Singapore summit, I was in Washington with Michelle Cunha and sixty members of the Korea Peace Network from twenty states to meet with Congressional staffers. We were dismayed by the Democrats who, fearful that the summit would boost Republicans’ chances in the November election, arrogantly claimed that Trump had made all of the compromises, gotten nothing in response, and shouldn’t have suspended the joint military exercises.
We urged them to challenge Trump from the left by pressing for more substantive negotiations: putting together the necessary team of experts to conduct serious negotiations, proposing a road map and schedule for successful negotiations, supporting the suspension of the provocative military exercises which should be made permanent, and pressing for an end to Trump’s travel ban and taking other steps to provide humanitarian foundations for peacemaking.
The U.S. Movement
I wish that I could report that we have a massive US movement committed to our government fulfilling its Article VI NPT commitment and to signing and ratifying the Ban Treaty. But, as you see from the size of the U.S. delegation here, in response to Trump’s fire and fury threats, his nuclear weapons upgrade, and the growing dangers of great power and other wars, there is in fact greater attention to and more actions devoted to reversing the nuclear dangers.
For example, 80 members of Congress have co-sponsored legislation to remove the president’s ability to launch first-strike nuclear war on his own authority, and Congressman Kohana has introduced No Preemptive War Against Iran legislation. One of the country’s most popular television programs ran a chilling episode about the danger of nuclear war resulting from miscalculation. And Daniel Ellsberg has returned to national prominence with his new book The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner.
Fears about Trump and the bomb are such that we held a no first strike conference at Harvard University with the surreal spectacle of me, a Vietnam era draft resister, chairing a panel featuring the former high priest of U.S. nuclearism William Perry, the former missileer Bruce Blair, and Zia Mian of Princeton University.
In Massachusetts, we have been briefing Congressional primary candidates, and a state legislator running for Congress introduced a no first use bill. And, as Michelle will report, we have a campaign of legal and civil disobedience actions challenging the nuclear weapons upgrade at a base near Boston.
In the coming months we will be working to ensure that the nuclear agreement with Iran survives Trump and Bolton as well as doing our best to prevent a regime change war. In the tradition of walking and chewing gum at the same time, while working to oust Trump and his corrupt coterie, we will support diplomacy to extend the New START Treaty, the survival of the INF Treaty, work for deeper cuts in the great powers’ arsenals, and find ways to encourage our partners in the nuclear umbrella states to break ranks with their masters by signing and ratifying the Ban Treaty.
Finally, with democratic culture and institutions in peril, with people of color and immigrants most vulnerable, and with Trump’s economic assaults on the 99%, we know that we must shatter our self-isolating movement silos. In unity there is strength, More, the reality is that root causes of preparations for nuclear annihilation; racist cultures of domination and injustice; and of the assaults on the environment are deeply and inter-related. Intersectional movement building is thus a priority for us, including opposing funding for new nuclear weapons as well as opposing Trump’s racist anti-immigrant ethnic cleansing. It means insisting that our elected leaders oppose Trumpian austerity and demand that money be redirected to pay for food stamps, for education and for infrastructure investments and not for empire and its ultimate enforcers – nuclear weapons. Finally, it means listening to others so that we can act in solidarity with those who are most immediately in danger.
1 Joseph Gerson. Empire and the Bomb: How the U.S. Uses Nuclear Weapons to Dominate the World, London:
Pluto Press,2007, pp. 53-55; Joseph Gerson. With Hiroshima Eyes: Atomic War, Nuclear Extortion and Moral
Imagination, Philadelphia. New Society Publishers, 1995, pp 33-36
22 Ibid. p. 41
3 https://www.bing.com/news/search?q=Transcript+Putin+Trump+Press+Conference+Helsinki&qpvt=transcript+pu
tin+trump+press+conference+helsinki&FORM=EWRE
4 Richard Hass. http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2018/07/16/trump-putin-helsinki
5 https://www.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/2018-National-Defense-Strategy-Summary.pdf
6 https://csnbbs.com/thread-850625.html
7 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/24/donald-trump-says-he-could-shoot-somebody-and-still-not-
lose-voters
8 Jack Beaty, On Point” National Public Radio, July 20, 2018.
9 https://thebulletin.org/2018-doomsday-clock-statement/
10 See, among others Joseph Gerson. “Doomsday and the Apocalyptic Trump Nuclear War Fighting Doctrine,”
Truthout, January 26, 2018
11 Daniel Ellsberg. The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, New 11-17York, Bloomsbury,
2018, pp
12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HBaC-htfM4 7
13 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/28/us/politics/north-korea-nuclear-disarmament-could-take-15-years-
expert-warns.html
14 https://portside.org/node/17428/printable/print
COLD NUCLEAR WAR IN THE BALTIC SEA AND MOBILIZATION OF THE ANTI-WAR COMMUNITY
Oleg Bodrov, a physicist, ecologist, chairperson of the Public Council of the South Coast of the Gulf of Finland ,
St. Petersburg, Russia
Kon’nichiwa!
Dear participants of the conference! Today I’m here with you not only to bow my head in memory of the victims of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima. I am here to unite our efforts against the expansion of military and so-called peaceful atomic technologies.
Unfortunately, Japanese historical lessons of using “military” and “peaceful” nuclear energy are not learned in many parts of our planet.
I am from the Еastern part of the Baltic Sea region, from St. Petersburg, Russia. Through the Baltic Sea, there is a line of confrontation between Russia and NATO.
Here the military exercises of NATO and Russia are developing rapidly and steadily. Tens of thousands of soldiers from both sides take part in them. During the exercises, the use of nuclear weapons is simulated.
The Russian government has published conditions under which Russia will be the first to use nuclear weapons. This can happen even if the threat from outside is not linked to the use of nuclear weapons. In the same time according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russia, “the prohibition of nuclear weapons contradicts the national interests of Russia.”
During recent military exercises, President Vladimir Putin personally launched the Russian “nuclear triad”. Four transcontinental missiles were launched from submarines, as well as from air and ground-based facilities capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Thus, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of Russia demonstrated a psychological readiness to use nuclear weapons.
Dear colleagues, for many years I have lived on the Baltic sea coast, next to St. Petersburg, a few kilometers from the one of the largest nuclear clusters on our planet. Here, 10 military and civilian nuclear reactors were built and 3 new reactors are currently under construction. In addition, there are 5,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel assemblies containing as much plutonium as there were if 3,000 bombs were dropped on Nagasaki.
Sosnovy Bor’s Nuclear Cluster
In addition, more than 30 NPP nuclear reactors were built and 4 currently are under construction.
If a nuclear conflict in the Baltic begins, it will be a socio-ecological collapse for 100 million inhabitants of the Baltic region.
My colleagues from Scandinavia and I initiated the collection of signatures around the Baltic region with calls to the leaders of NATO countries and Russia, European and Russian Parliamentarians to stop the confrontation and militarization of the Baltic region.
We called on the parliaments of the countries around the Baltic to finance programs to save the Baltic ecosystem instead of military games.
Under our call, 110 representatives of non-governmental organizations from the Baltic region, as well as the United Kingdom, France and the United States signed.
Dear participants of the Conference!
Russian President Putin promotes the idea that enemies surround the country, and it is necessary to invest all necessary national resources in military preparations. Thanks to this, the militarization of the public consciousness can be intensified and the use of military force is justified.
A similar situation with the political mainstream about NATO exists in the European Union countries. The politicians of NATO, EU and Russia try to separate us, to make us enemies.
We are against such a strategy!
If you come to the countryside near St. Petersburg, Hiroshima or Nagasaki and ask the people what is most important for you in life?
I am sure that most people will say: the health of children and relatives, a healthy peaceful environment, decent work.
Dear friends, we live in our common house – Planet Earth!
We raise our children together with you and need a healthy environment.
Together we can and must stop nuclear expansion and the militarization of public consciousness in our countries.
Let us unite our efforts to save our planet Earth from military and “peaceful” nuclear technologies.
No more Hiroshima, No more Nagasaki, no more Chernobyl, no more Fukushima!
Statement for Special Meeting 1 on Nuclear-free, bases free Japan and Okinawa
Jerry Ross
Delegate from USA
Respectful greetings to our hosts, those gathered here from across Japan, and especially to the citizens of Okinawa Prefecture. My name is Jerry Ross and I come from the United States where I live in the State of Massachusetts, near the city of Boston.
It is a privilege to participate in this Special Meeting but a source of remorse and embarrassment as I have come to learn more about the actions of my country in its vast military presence in Okinawa and its continued exploitation of its land and people.
Let me say just a word about who I am and how I came to be here today. I am NOT an expert on US bases in Okinawa. When I was asked to participate in this meeting as a visiting delegate from the United States, I was fortunate to receive a quick tutoring in the issues from Dr. Joseph Gerson, who IS an expert and a long-time friend and advocate of the Okinawan people. Mostly I am here to learn, but I will share what I suspect are common perspectives in the United States regarding bases abroad and a little of what is going on more generally in my country.
Unfortunately, I believe most Americans have very little awareness of the number and cost of US military installations around the world, and even less understanding of their impact on the people and places in which they are located. Let me cite a few figures you are all probably aware of: nearly 800 bases, in over 70 countries and territories, at a cost ranging from $100 billion dollars a year, to nearly $200 billion if you include those in active warzones. If bases are talked about at all, it is in the context of “forward staging” of men and material to “deter aggression.” The credibility of such national security claims, how those bases impact the lands they are on, or the legality or morality of their being there at all, gathers little if any attention in US media. Given the overall size of this deployment, Okinawa, even with its 30-some bases which comprise 70% of Japanese territory used by the US military, Okinawa I am sad to say, would be, in American slang, “a drop in the water-bucket,” meaning, a very small part in something much greater. Add to that the general lack of information about Okinawa — the typical American might ask, “Is it a part of Japan, or an independent country, located exactly where?” I am afraid there is little public appreciation in my country for the harm these bases cause to the Okinawan people or their long-suffering efforts to have them removed. All of which is to emphasize the importance of continued resistance from the Okinawan people, support for them from among the Japanese people as a whole, and the need for people like myself to carry back to the US what we have learned about your struggle.
Let me also comment for a moment on the general state of affairs in America today. Those of us who worried how terrible things might become under a Donald Trump presidency were wrong. It is even far worse than we imagined. Not in our wildest dreams did we anticipate the depth of his attacks on our national polity and norms of our society. Nor did we recognize the depths of collusion to which the Republican party would descend in order to retain power. Although American institutions are strong and great resistance has emerged within our population, many of us feel we are in a struggle for the survival of our country as we have known it. To put it mildly, Americans are at this time consumed with many worries “close to home.”
Now, I need to say there is at least a tiny light in all this gloom, and that is the joint Base Closure statement organized by my colleague Joseph Gerson of the Campaign for Peace Disarmament and Common Security, and now being circulated for signature by leaders from across the globe. Originally issued in 2014 and signed by over 100 of the world’s leading Scholars, Artists, and Activists, it called for support of the Okinawan people in their resistance to the planned construction of the new US base at Henoko. It has now been updated and calls for the closure of ALL US foreign military bases. Addressed to President Donald Trump, Secretary of Defense Mattis, and the US Congress, it details the fundamental reasons foreign military bases fail to serve American interests, actually increase US security problems, and have a profoundly negative impact on the land and people where they are located. The declaration stands as “an unequivocal statement of support for the people of Okinawa in their struggle for peace, dignity, human rights and protection of their environment…”
We should all be inspired by the courage and determination of the Okinawan people. We at this conference, in any way we are able, and the Japanese people as a whole, should support their Okinawan brethren in their long nonviolent struggle to remove these bases and recover their land and independence.
