Japan Can’t Have It Both Ways: We Must Act on Nuclear Disarmament

Published in Ryūkyū Shimpō
(Japan) on 14 March 2015
by (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Thomas S. Evans. Edited by Kyrstie Lane.
The Japanese administration has settled on abandoning the nuclear armament prohibition measure Austria circulated around the U.N. It seems this is in response to pressure from the U.S. to avoid any effects such a measure would have on allies under its “nuclear umbrella.” There’s no excuse for Japan, the only country to ever have been victim to a nuclear attack, to not stand in favor of a measure that would ban possession of nuclear arms.

Next month Austria will submit materials to the review conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in New York, with the goal of standardizing the debate on nuclear disarmament. The documents follow a general message along the lines of, “No matter how you look at it, it is to the benefit of humanity that nuclear weapons are never used again.” Certainly, this is undeniable. There’s really no good reason to disagree.

The Japanese administration has justified its “no” answer by stressing the importance of maintaining consistency with the U.S.-Japan alliance, which is built upon a security treaty that includes Japan in the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Yet 70 years ago, on Aug. 6 and 9, the country that dropped nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the United States. Due to those attacks, over 210,000 Japanese citizens had their lives stolen from them. I wonder if this administration could look any of the surviving victims in the eye and say that nuclear weapons are a “necessary evil” for the sake of the U.S.-Japan alliance.

Last year in August, at ceremonies for the nuclear bomb victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged the following: “As the only nation in history to have ever suffered the horrors of nuclear bombing, we Japanese have an obligation to ensure the realization of a world free of nuclear weapons.” For the administration to not agree to this most recent U.N. measure is clearly not in line with the prime minister’s supposed resolve. There’s simply no way to judge this behavior as anything other than duplicitous.

Currently there are about 16,400 nuclear warheads remaining in the world, with about 90 percent of them held by Russia and the U.S. alone. In comparison, over 150 countries participated in last year’s second Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, comprised almost entirely of nations which are not in possession of nuclear armaments. The demand for the prohibition of nuclear weapons is the voice of the world at large. It is with them that Japan should stand.

A report compiled with the aid of organizations including International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War highlights the consequences of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan, explaining that such a conflict would initiate a food crisis that would throw over 2 billion people into climate change-induced famine on a global scale.

Nuclear armaments continue to be a menace to the entire world. As the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack, Japan should take the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II as an opportunity to end this two-faced policy of speaking about the importance of nuclear disarmament while openly relying on a nuclear umbrella built upon the very same weapons we supposedly denounce. President Obama also talks about a world without nuclear weapons, and maybe he can be convinced — but we need to start walking the path of disarmament with sincerity and in good faith.


<社説>核禁止日本不賛同 二枚舌やめ、廃絶実現を

 オーストリアが核兵器禁止を呼び掛け、国連全加盟国に配布した文書について、日本政府が賛同を見送る方針を固めた。米国が「核の傘」への影響を理由に同盟国などに不賛同を働き掛けた動きに応じたようだ。世界唯一の被爆国の日本が核兵器禁止の呼び掛けに賛同しない姿勢は許し難い。
 オーストリアは来月ニューヨークで開幕する核拡散防止条約(NPT)再検討会議で文書を提出し、核禁止の議論を本格化させる狙いがある。文書では「いかなる状況でも核兵器が二度と使用されないことが人類の利益」などと記されている。まさに正論ではないか。賛同しない理由は見当たらない。
 日本政府は核の傘に頼る安全保障政策との整合性から日米同盟を重視し、文書に「ノー」で応じることにした。70年前の8月6日と9日、広島と長崎に原爆を投下したのは米国だ。それによって21万人余の国民の命が奪われた。日米同盟を優先して核兵器を「必要悪」と是認する政府は犠牲者にどう顔向けできるというのか。
 安倍晋三首相は昨年8月の広島、長崎での原爆犠牲者を慰霊する式典で「人類史上唯一の戦争被爆国として核兵器の惨禍を体験したわが国には、確実に『核兵器のない世界』を実現していく責務がある」と誓った。不賛同を示した今回の政府の姿勢は、明らかに安倍首相の決意と相いれないものだ。二枚舌と批判されても仕方ない。
 現在、世界には約1万6400発の核弾頭が残り、うち9割超は米国とロシアの2国が保有している。一方、非保有国が中心となって昨年開かれた「核兵器の非人道性に関する国際会議」には150カ国以上が参加した。核兵器禁止を求める声こそ世界の潮流だ。日本はこれらの国々と共に行動すべきだ。
 核戦争防止国際医師会議(IPPNW)などがまとめた報告書は、インドとパキスタンの核戦争が起きれば、世界の20億人超が飢餓に陥る地球規模の気候変動と食料危機が発生すると警鐘を鳴らした。
 核兵器は地球規模の脅威であり続けている。唯一の被爆国日本は戦後70年を機に「核の傘」という核兵器に頼りながら核兵器廃絶を叫ぶ二枚舌政策をやめるべきだ。「核兵器なき世界」を掲げるオバマ米大統領を説得してでも、真の核兵器廃絶の道を歩む必要がある。
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