nuclear-news

A-bomb survivors react to US nuclear policy

 https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180203_10/  Atomic bomb survivors in Japan have expressed anger and disappointment over the new US nuclear strategy.

Toshiyuki Mimaki is a survivor from Hiroshima and a member of Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations.

Mimaki said he feels outrage at the policy. He says if a president of a major power wants to increase and modernize nuclear capabilities, it means A-bomb survivors will never see a world without nuclear arms.

He said nuclear arms do not make the world safer and such weapons should never be used regardless of size.

Koichi Kawano heads the Nagasaki-based Hibakuren, a liaison council for A-bomb survivors at the prefecture’s Peace Movement Center.

Kawano said the announcement poured cold water on the achievement last year of the adoption of a UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

He said the new US strategy, which aims to develop smaller nuclear arms, could lower the bar for the use of such weapons. He said this would raise the likelihood of nuclear war. Noting the presence of US military bases in Japan, Kawano urged the Japanese government to make more diplomatic efforts to prevent war.

February 5, 2018 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general