News Archive LAST UPDATE  December 27, 2009
December 24, 2009 Peace Boat Christmas Project: Merry Xmas & Happy No Nuclear!!

On Christmas Eve, Peace Boat and a group of Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors), dressed up as Santa Claus, presented Prime Minister Hatoyama Yuko with a special Christmas gift. The ‘Hibakusha Santas’, all past participants in Peace Boat’s “Global Voyages for a Nuclear Free World – Peace Boat Hibakusha Project” presented a giant Christmas Orizuru (origami crane), containing personal wishes for a nuclear free world, and a letter asking the Japanese government to take leadership in the worldwide movement towards nuclear abolition (see below). As next year’s Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference approaches, the Hibakusha Santas called for Prime Minister Hatoyama to take concrete steps towards the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Prime Minister of Japan
Mr Hatoyama Yukio
Let's give the children a Nuclear-Free World
Merry Christmas!
Although the world was faced with news of recession and other difficulties this year, it was also a year that gave us a bright light on the path towards peace in the world.

This was the promise of the President of the United States, Barack Obama, to take action for a world without nuclear weapons. However, he also said that this goal might not be reached in his lifetime.

We have travelled throughout the globe and shared the Hibakusha's experiences of the atomic bomb in countries all over the world. Through this, we were able to feel directly how much people around the world are seriously thinking about the danger of nuclear weapons. Hibakusha, even now 64 years since the dropping of the atomic bombs, continue to face suffering and insecurity. This is why we, even more than ever, now raise our voices as one.

“Abolish nuclear weapons during our lifetimes!”
 This is our common wish. Prime Minister Hatoyama, in your September statement at the United Nations, you said that “Japan should take the lead in the pursuit of the elimination of nuclear weapons.” We very much hope that you will take such action, and ask of you the following.

Please thoroughly investigate the Non-Nuclear Three Principles “Secret Pact.” Along with declaring both domestically and internationally that the Non-Nuclear Three Principles will stand firm, please enshrine them into law. Not being doubted by the world is a step towards leading the path to nuclear abolition.

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At the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, please gain international consensus on a roadmap towards nuclear abolition. As the ban on anti-personnel land mines was led by Canada, and the ban on cluster bombs by Norway, Japan should support and take initiative to create a Nuclear Weapons Convention, a global treaty to comprehensively abolish nuclear weapons.

As for the nuclear umbrella – it is reported that bureaucrats are requesting the United States to maintain its nuclear capacity for the sake of Japan, and are thus acting as an obstacle to US nuclear disarmament. This is a violation of our feelings, and of the experiences of the Hibakusha. As Prime Minister, we call on you to make clear that Japan's security does not rely on nuclear weapons.

We wish that by next year's Christmas we will be on the road to a nuclear-free world, and wish you all the best in your active initiatives to this end.