nuclear-news

Japanese professors remind public of the story of hibakusha

The next few years will be crucial in collecting oral
histories from hibakusha. I feel a sense of responsibility as the last
generation that can learn directly from the victims.

INTERVIEW: Scholars call for greater cooperation between Hiroshima,
Nagasaki in anti-nuclear push January 20, 2013 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Two scholars who have spent their careers collating first-hand
accounts of atomic victims from Hiroshima and Nagasaki and using those
experiences to push for nuclear disarmament sat down with The Asahi
Shimbun to talk about their research into the 1945 attacks.

Taeko Kiriya, 32, is an assistant professor at the Hiroshima Peace
Institute of Hiroshima City University while Keiko Nakamura, 40, is an
associate professor at the Research Center for Nuclear Weapons
Abolition (RECNA) at Nagasaki University.

Excerpts of the interviews follow:……

………Kiriya: The next few years will be crucial in collecting oral
histories from hibakusha. I feel a sense of responsibility as the last
generation that can learn directly from the victims. While research
has been conducted on reconstruction of buildings and the city, there
has been insufficient research on how individual hibakusha have gone
about rebuilding their own lives. I want to leave behind a systemic
collection of the philosophy of the victims.

Nakamura: By focusing on the “inhumanity of nuclear weapons,” which is
gaining international attention, I want to accelerate moves toward
making nuclear weapons illegal and reaching an international agreement
on banning nuclear weapons.

The only reason given by the Japanese government for not participating
in a statement that would make nuclear weapons illegal or for saying
that it was still too early for negotiations for a nuclear weapons ban
agreement is “it does not match Japan’s national security policy that
depends on nuclear deterrence.”

Although Japan has the capability to move the world through the
experiences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is pulling the rug out from
under its own legs.

It will be necessary for citizens to not only express their anger
toward the Japanese government, but to also present specific
proposals, such as a zone without nuclear weapons for Northeast Asia.

(The interviews were conducted by Ryo Kiyomiya of the Hiroshima
General Bureau and Asako Hanafusa of the Nagasaki General
Bureau.)http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/opinion/AJ201301200014

January 21, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, social effects