核未来を！

The Online Version in English----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Towards a Nuclear Free Future!

Towardのない
A Nuclear-Free Future!
Global Hibakusha Reportfrom Hiroshima to the World

ヒロシマから世界へ
届けよう核被害者の声を！

The World Nuclear Victims Forum

広島・長崎被爆70周年

Nov.21-23, 2015

The World Nuclear Victim’s Forum

世界核被害者フォーラム
Plus, Addenda 2015-2021:

Revisiting the Issues in a Time of Global Crisis
2015.11.21---11.23《《報告記録集》》

The World Nuclear Victims Executive Committee

世界核被害者フォーラム実行委員会

The Online Version in English
Toward a Nuclear-Free Future!

Global Hibakusha Reportfrom Hiroshima to the World!

The World Nuclear Victims Forum
Plus, Addenda 2015-2021:
Revisiting the Issues in a Time of Global Crisis

The World Nuclear Victims Executive Committee

Foreword for the Online English Version

for Toward a Nuclear-Free Future!
This is the online English version of Toward a Nuclear-Free Future!,
the record of the World Nuclear Victims Forum held in Hiroshima
November 21-23, 2015. Toward a Nuclear-Free Future! was publishedin August 2020.
About 20 foreign guests and more than 1,000 people attended theForum, including hibakusha, scientists, legal experts, and campaigners.
They received up-to-date reports and participated in discussions
regarding the grave nuclear damage still being done around the world.
(The Forum was possible thanks to generous donations and assistancefrom many concerned people and groups in Japan and abroad.) On
the last day, the Forum adopted the Declaration of the World Nuclear
Victims Forum in Hiroshima together with the Draft Elements of aCharter of World Nuclear Victims’ Rights.
Nuclear problems remain the most urgent of all. We must tackle
them now despite the many other crises surging one after another, fromclimate disruption to the pandemic and more. We hope the reports andmessages uploaded here can be of some help in building further the
momentum generated by the coming into force of the Treaty on theProhibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
This online version contains many of the presentations given atthe 2015 Forum, but only abstracts or profiles are available for somesessions at present. We will keep working to improve this site and ask
you to join us in spreading around the world the messages that camefrom this Forum.
English Translation Project
The World Nuclear Victims Executive Committee

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21-23, 2015

The Online Version in English

The Online Version in English
Toward a Nuclear-Free Future!:
The World Nuclear Victims Forum (Nov.21-23, 2015)

Global Hibakusha Reportfrom Hiroshima to the World-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Plus, Addenda 2015-2021:
Revisiting the Issues in a Time of Global Crisis-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contents:
1) Foreword for the Online English Version, 2021
2) Organizer’s Greetings at the World Nuclear Victims Forum3) Photos from the World Nuclear Victims Forum
4) The World Nuclear Victims Forumi) Day Oneii) Day Twoiii) Day Three
5) Addenda 2015-2021: Recent Movements
6) Afterword

Toward A Nuclear-Free Future!

核のない未来を！
ヒロシマから世界へ 届けよう核 被 害 者の声を！

核
核のない
未来を
未来を
！
！
Towards aa Nuclear-Free
Nuclear-Free Future!
Future!
Towards

ヒロシマから世界へ
届けよう核被害者の声を！

世界核被害者フォーラム︽ 報告記録集︾︿ 追録 グローバル危機の時代に問い直す﹀&

世界核被害者フォーラム実行委員会

広島・長崎被爆70周年
広島・長崎被爆
75周年に、改めて訴える核被害

The World
Nuclear Victims
Victim’sForum
Forum
The
World Nuclear

世界核被害者フォーラム
世界核被害者フォーラム広島
2015.11.21---11.23
2015.11.21---11.23《報告記録集》&〈追録》：グローバル危機の時代に問い直す〉《《《報告記録集》
報告記録集》

世界核被害者フォーラム実行委員会

Toward A Nuclear-Free Future!:
The World Nuclear Victims Forum 2015
Published in July 2020

Supervising editors: Nanao Kamata & Nobuo Kazashi
Chief-editors: Haruko Moritaki & Takekatsu Tamuro
Layout: Shift Project, Hiroshima
Compiled and Published by The World Nuclear Victims Forum Executive Committee------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* The Japanese version,『核のない未来を！ 世界核被害者フォーラム報告記録集』（A4/290 pages; 42 pages in color）

is available at 2,000 yen per copy (+ 500 yen for shipping).

Please send an email order to: hibakushaforum@gmail.com

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21-23, 2015

The Online Version in English

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima, 2015

Day 1: November 21 (Saturday)

International Conference Center, “Himawari=Sunflower” Hall
8:30
9:20

Visit to Hiroshima Peace Museum and Peace Memorial Park
(Guide: Michiko Yamane, World Friendship Center)…
Offering flowers at the Cenotaph

10:00-11:45

Opening Session

Moderator: Tomoko Watanabe (Director, ANT Hiroshima)………………………………………………… 5

Opening Remarks: Katsuaki Aoki (Joint Representative, WNVF)
Welcoming speech: Takashi Hiraoka (Former Mayor of Hiroshima, Adviser, WNVF)
Introduction of Forum Themes: Haruko Moritaki (Secretary General, WNVF)
Keynote Lecture I Introduction: Nobuo Kazashi (Joint Representative, WNVF)
Keynote Lecture I : Tilman Ruff
Title: We can: a healthy sustainable future can only be nuclear-free(Co-President , IPPNW / Founding Chair, ICAN / Associate Professor, University of Melbourne)
Solidarity Message (Video): Alex Rosen (Ph.D, Assistant Director of IPPNW Germany)
Special Report: Toshiko Naito              (Hiroshima Hibakusha, Chair of the “No More Hibakusha” Class Action Lawsuit)

11:45-12:45

Lunch break<Session 1> Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage……………………………… 27
Uranium mining, nuclear testing, Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, nuclear energy accidents,
nuclear energy labor, the reality of damage caused by depleted uranium weapons
12:45-13:45[1] Uranium Mining……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 28
Coordinators : ann-elise lewallen (Associate Professor. University of California, Santa Barbara): Haruko Moritaki (Secretary General, WNVF)
Presenters:
1) Petuuche Gilbert (US: Acoma Pueblo, Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment,
Uranium Mining Affected Indigenous community)2) Ashish Birulee (India: Jadugoda Uranium Mine Anti-Radiation Alliance)

13:50-15:20[2] Nuclear Tests………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 32
Coordinators : Seiichiro Takemine (Associate Professor, Meisei University)
Noboru Tazaki (Executive Director, Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
Earth Citizens' Assembly Executive Committee Nagasaki)
Presenters:
1) Karina Lester (Australia: Australian Nuclear Free Alliance, ANFA)
2) Enver Tohti (China: Lop Nur Project)
3) Mary Dickson (U.S.A.: downwinder; writer)
4) Seiichiro Takemine (Japan: researcher)

15:25-16:25[3] Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings………………………………………………………… 44
Coordinators : Katsuaki Aoki (Joint Representative, WNVF)
Mitsugi Moriguchi (Executive Director, Nagasaki Testimony Association)
Presenters:
1) Seiji Takato (Hiroshima Hibakusha, Plaintiff for the Black Rain Class Action Lawsuit)2) Shohei Tsuiki (Nagasaki Hibakusha,)3) Sim Jintae Diretor, Hapchon Chapter of Korean - Hibakusha Association

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21-23, 2015

The Online Version in English

16:25-16:40

Break

16:40-18:20[4] Nuclear Power Plant Accidents: Chernobyl and Fukushima…………………………………… 54
Coordinators : Ichiro Yuasa (Former Representative, Peace Depot)
Hajime Shiraishi (Executive Producer, Our PlanetTV)
Presenters:
1) Alexander Velikin (Russia: Liquidator)
2) Anton Vdovichenko (Russia: Radymich Representative, Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Victim Support NGO)
3) Kenichi Hasegawa (co-representative, Fukushima Nuclear Accident Victims Network)
Commentator: Katsutaka Idogawa  Previous Mayor of Futaba Town, Fukushima

18:25-19:25[5] Nuclear Waste Use and Depleted Uranium Shells………………………………………………… 62
Coordinators : Maki Sato (Secretary General, JIM Net=Japan Iraq Medical Network)
Naomi Toyoda (Photojournalist)
Presenters:
1) Hideyuki Ban (Director, Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center)2) Jawad Al-Ali (Cancer Advisor, Iraq Ministry of Health)3) Kareem Abdulsada Abd Ahmed (Director, Basra Cancer Prevention Center)

19:30

Welcome Reception

Moderators: Shoji Kihara (Director, We Don’t Want Nuclear Power Plants Hiroshima Citizens’ Group): Michiko Yamane (Director, WFC=World Friendship Center): Meri Joyce (International Coordinator, Peace Boat)
Greeting: Tadatoshi Akiba ( Previous Mayor of Hiiroshima)
Music: Shinobue (a kind of bamboo flute) by KotoDay 2: November 22 (Sunday)

International Conference Center, “Himawari” Hall
9:00-11:00<Session 2> The Science of “Hibaku” (Radiation Exposure)………………………………… 66
Coordinators : Nanao Kamada (Professor Emeritus, Hiroshima University,
Director of Hiroshima Hibakusha Relief Foundation)
Katsumi Furitsu (Asst. Professor, Hyogo College of Medicine, ICBUW,
Chernobyl Hibakusha Relief Kansai)
Presenters:
1) Masao Tomonaga (Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Hospital Director Emeritus)
2) Anatolii Chumak (Ukraine: Vice Director of the Institute of Clinical Radiology of National Research Center for
Radiation Medicine)3) Shinji Tokonami (Professor, Hirosaki University; Tokonami Research Lab, Hirosaki University Radiation Medical
Research Institute)4) Masaharu Hoshi (Professor Emeritus at Hiroshima University
Commentator: Eisuke Matsui (Director, Gifu Environmental Medicine Research Institute)
11:00-11:10

BreakThe World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21-23, 2015

The Online Version in English

11:10-12:20<Special Session>……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 72
Coordinator and Lecture Introduction: Tadashi Sawada (Assistant Secretary General, WNVF)
Keynote Lecture II: Dr. Hiroaki Koide
Title: “All Uses of Nuclear Technology Unjust Sacrifice”(Former Assistant Professor, Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University)
Round table with Dr Koide and International Guests
Kumar Sundaram (India: Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace)
Anatolii Chumak (Ukraine: National Research Center for Radiation Medicine)
Keisaburo Toyonaga (Hiroshima Hibakusha,Association of Citizens for Supporting South Korean Atomic Bomb Victims)
12:20-13:30

Lunch break

13:30-16:00<Session 3> Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons and Depleted Uranium Weapons…… 81
Coordinators : Osamu Shinohara (Professor at Hiroshima Jyogakuin University): Keiko Nakamura (Assoc. Professor, Research Center for Nuclear WeaponsAbolition (RECNA), Nagasaki University)
Presenters:
1) Mary Dickson (Downwinders, U.S. , Director of Creative Service)2) Akira Kawasaki (Executive Committee Member, Peace Boat; ICAN Steering Committee)
3) Tilman Ruff (Co-President of IPPNW and founding Chair of ICAN )4) Kenichi Okubo (International Anti-Nuclear Campaign)
5) Manfred Mohr (lawyer, IALANA-Germany, ICBUW)
16:00-16:15

Break

16:15-17:45<Session 4> Campaign Against Nuclear Material Uses: From Uranium Mining,
Nuclear Power, Fuel Cycle………………………………………………………………………… 94
Coordinators: Shoji Kihara (We Don’t Want Nuclear Power Plants Hiroshima Citizens’ Group): Kiyoshi Toda (Professor, Nagasaki University Environmental Studies)
Presenters:
1) Ruiko Muto (Representative, Complainants for the Criminal Prosecution of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster)2) Kumar Sundaram (India: Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace)3) Shriprakash (India: Documentary Director, “Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda”)
18:00-19:00      International Conference Center, Himawari<Film Screening> New film: “Documentary film on uranium mining damage in India and the US”
Directed by Shriprakash

17:50-20:00

World Charter of Nuclear Radiation Victims’ Rights Drafting Committee(International Conference Hall: Forum Steering Committee Room)
Coordinators : Shuichi Adachi, Japan Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms
: Nobuo Kazashi, Joint Representative, WNVF ; Professor Kobe University
1) Kenji Urata (Professor Emeritus, Waseda University)
2) Manfred Mohr (Lawyer, IALANA-Germany, ICBUW)
3) Tetsuji Imanaka (Assistant Professor, Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute)4) Takeya Sasaki (Director, Japan Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms)
5) Kenichi Okubo (Director, Japan Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms)
6) Akira Kawasaki (Steering Committee of ICAN, Joint Advisor of Japanese NGO Network for Nuclear Weapons Abolition)7) Katsumi Furitsu (ICBUW, Chernobyl Hibakusha Relief Kansai)8) Nobuto Hirano (Co-Director, Association for giving Support to Hibakusha abroad)The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21-23, 2015

The Online Version in English

9) Nanao Kamada (Director of Hiroshima Hibakusha Relief Foundation)10) Ruiko Muto (Representative, Complainants for the Criminal Prosecution of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster)11) ann-elise lewallen (Assistant Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara; Research on Indigenous
Hibakusha of the Nuclear Cycle)
12) Tilman Ruff (Joint representative, IPPNW and ICAN)
13) Mary Dickson (Director of Creative Services)
14) Anatolii Chumak (Vice Director of the Institute of Clinical Radiology of National Research Center for Radiation Medicine)15) Maki Sato (Secretary General, JIM Net=Japan Iraq Medical Network)16) Executive Committee (K. Aoki, Y. Funahashi, S. Kihara, T. Sawada, H. Moritaki)17) Meri Joyce (Peace Boat, interpreter)
Participation by E-mail1) Masayoshi Naito (Director, the Japan Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms)
2) Steven Leeper (Former Director, Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation)
3) Hiromitsu Toyosaki (Photojournalist)

Day 3: November 23 (Monday, Holiday)
International Conference Center, “Himawari” Hall

<Session 5> How to Develop a Nuclear Victims’ Network Hereafter……………………… 101
Coordinator team :Nobuo Kazashi, (Joint Representative, WNVF)
Shoji Kihara (Director, We Don’t Want Nuclear Power Plants Hiroshima Citizens’ Group)
Maki Sato (Secretary General, JIM Net=Japan Iraq Medical Network)
Katsumi Furitsu (ICBUW, Chernobyl Hibakusha Relief Kansai
Haruko Moritaki (Secretary General, WNVF)
9:30-10:30
10:30-12:00
12:00-13:30
13:30-14:30

Reports from each of the 9 sessions
Plenary discussion, Part 1
Lunch break
Plenary discussion, Part 2

14:30-15:00<Closing Session> Moderator: Noriko Nakajima (WNVF)…………………………………………………… 103“World Charter of Nuclear Radiation Victims’ Rights” Proposal/Adoption
Shuichi Adachi, (Japan Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, WNVF)
Special Appeal in Relation to the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Proposal/Adoption
Tadashi Sawada, Assistant Secretary General, WNVF)
Closing Remarks: Masao Tomonaga (Joint Representative, WNVF)*Concurrently (International Conference Center, Himawari)……………………… : Hibakusha Worldwide Poster Exhibit (produced by IPPNW Germany; with Japanese translation)……………………………… : Photo Exhibit of the Damage from Uranium Mining in Jadugoda, India; by Ashish Biluree---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* Member List of the Executive Committee of the World Nuclear Victims Forum* Declaration of the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima(Draft Elements of a Charter of World Nuclear Victims’ Rights)* Drafting Committee for the World Charter of “Nuclear Radiation Victims’ Rights”* Draft Elements of a World Charter of the Rights of Nuclear Victims* World Nuclear Victims Forum Organizing Committee* World Nuclear Victims Forum Simultaneous Interpreters etc.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21-23, 2015

The Online Version in English

Addenda 2015-2021: Recent Movements & Reflections………… 110
1) Haruko MORITAKI    Enact the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Now! :Examining the Critical Situation after the INF Treaty’s Collapse
2) Katsuaki AOKI    The Hibakusha Lawsuit: History of Unfair Ruling3) Naomi TOYODA    What Will Children 300 Years from Now Think?
“Recovery” — Nine Years after the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster4) Katsumi FURITSU
Connecting Chernobyl and Fukushima:Handing over the Next Generation,
To protect the Rights of Nuclear Victims and not to Repeat Damage
  5) Maki SATO
    Iraqi Children Now?: Reflection 18 Years after the Iraq War
6) Joseph T. SCARRY
To Get Back from the Brink of the Nuclear War:
From America in the Coronavirus Crisis
7) Nobuo KAZASHIThe Messages from the World Hibakusha Forum:
    Reading Anew in the Midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* Afterword for the Online English Version

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima, 2015

Photo gallery - 1

Toward the Eradication of
Nuclear Damage

Following the 1987 conference in New York and the 1992 conference in Berlin, the World
Nuclear Victims Forum was held in Hiroshima in November 2015, with nuclear victims
and experts from 18 countries.

1

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima, 2015

Photo gallery - 22The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima, 2015

Photo gallery - 3

Participants Engaged in Passionate Discussions for
Three Days

Hibakusha, campaigning organizations, scientists and legal experts gathered in
Hiroshima to present up-to-date reports regarding the on-going nuclear damage
derived from various phases of the nuclear cycler, from uranium mining to nuclear
tests, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear plant
accidents, and depleted uranium weapons.

Poster Exhibition, Hibakusha Worldwide(concurrently held)

Fifty photo posters (AI size) provided by IPPNW Germany wereon exhibit during the Forum. Together with captions translated into
Japanese, the photos showed nuclear damage at 50 sites around theworld caused by uranium mining, nuclear testing, nuclear war, nuclear
plant accidents, depleted uranium weapons, and nuclear waste.
    Another photo exhibition was held concurrently to show photos
taken by photojournalist Ashish Birulee of the damage caused by theuranium mine in Jadugoda, India.

3

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima, 2015

Photo gallery - 4

Draft Elements of a Charter of World Nuclear
Victims’ Rights: Proposed and Adopted

In accordance with the idea that “humankind and nuclear
technology cannot co-exist indefinitely, the “Declaration of theWorld Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima” was presented
to demand recognition of the human rights of nuclear victims
around the world. The first draft was circulated and discussed
via email in advance of the Forum. The final declaration was
adopted by all participants on the last day of the Forum.

4The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

1
Opening
Opening
SessionSessionKeynote SpeechOpening Session
The World Nuclear Victims Forum

Moderator: Tomoko Watanabe (Director, ANT Hiroshima)
Opening Remarks: Katsuaki Aoki (Joint Representative, WNVF)…………………………………………… 6
Welcoming Speech: Takashi Hiraoka (Former Mayor of Hiroshima, Adviser, WNVF)
Keynote Proposal: Haruko Moritaki (Secretary General, WNVF)…………………………………………… 8
Keynote Lecture Introduction: Nobuo Kazashi (Joint Representative, WNVF)
Keynote Speech : Tilman Ruff…………………………………………………………………………………………… 12
Title: We can: a healthy sustainable future can only be nuclear-free(Co-President , IPPNW / Founding Chair, ICAN / Associate Professor, University of Melbourne)

Solidarity Message (Video): Alex Rosen (Ph.D, Assistant Director of IPPNW Germany) ………… 18
Special Report: Toshiko Naito …………………………………………………………………………………………… 23(Hiroshima Hibakusha, Chair of the “No More Hibakusha” Class Action Lawsuit)Moderator:

Tomoko WATANABE(Director, ANT Hiroshima)[Profile: Ms Tomoko Watanabe is a second-generation
A-bomb survivor. She is working as Executive Director of ANTHiroshima founded in 1989, and she also started, together with
UNITAR, the Green Legacy Hiroshima (GLH) Initiative in 2011,a global campaign to disseminate and plant worldwide seeds
and saplings of trees that survived the atomic bombing. Ms
Watanabe has been a member of the Board of Directors of theHiroshima Peace Culture Foundation since 1998. From October
2004 to October 2012, she served on the Hiroshima Municipal
Board of Education.]

5

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

KeynoteOrganizer’s Greetings
at theSpeech
Forum

Opening Remarks:

Opening Remarks:

Katsuaki AOKI

Katsuaki Aoki

Thank you very muchfor joining our forum
World Nuclear Victims Forum Executive Committee (WNVF)
Co-representatives:

Katsuaki Aoki
Masao Tomonaga
Nobuo Kazashi

6

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

KeynoteOrganizer’s Greetings
at theSpeech
Forum

Opening Remarks:

Katsuaki AOKI

Many events are being held throughout this year tocountries, despite the fact that the Fukushima nuclear

bombings. In Nagasaki, children made a 70 metre muralimprove their support for atomic bomb survivors unlesscommemorate the 70th anniversary of the atomic

praying for peace, as a “Kids’ Guernica in Nagasaki.”
In Hiroshima, a festival called “Tori Gosairei” washeld at Tosho Shrine for the first time in 200 years. In
this famous Hiroshima festival, people parade while

carrying a portable shrine on their shoulders. It washeld every fifty years after the death of shogun Ieyasu

Tokugawa, but the festival was discontinued becauseof the Meiji Restoration, World War I, and the atomic

disaster is still ongoing. The government will notthey are unsuccessful in the courts. On November 4,another law suit was launched to enlarge the designatedradiation exposed area caused by “black rain.” People
who were robbed of their hometown and peaceful lives

because of the Fukushima disaster are also taking legal
action against the government and the nuclear plant
operator, TEPCO.

Under these circumstances, we, the citizens ofbombing. Thanks to the fact that Japan has not engaged

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have prepared the World

constitution, the festival could be revived this year.

anniversary of the atomic bombings.

in warfare for more than 50 years under the peace
Nuclear weapons have not been used in

Nuclear Victims Forum to take place during the 70th
All stages and situations in the nuclear cycle

warfare since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima(uranium mining, nuclear testing, exposure to radiation

efforts of Hibakusha, atomic bomb survivors, to tellnuclear power plant accidents, disposal of nuclear

and Nagasaki. This is largely due to the continuedof their experiences, and the fact that people aroundthe world have supported them and come to realize thehumanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. Yet, conflicts

continue to unfold all over the world. Nuclear weapons
states advocate the perceived effectiveness of thenuclear deterrent, and many non-nuclear states also try
to develop the technology to generate nuclear power.

In Japan, Prime Minister Abe has recently passed

a set of “security bills,” which many of the public referby atomic bombs, use of depleted uranium weapons,
waste, etc.) have created victims and violated theright to live in peace. While a final document was not
adopted at this year's Review Conference of the Parties

to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons (NPT), countries supporting efforts for atreaty to ban nuclear weapons increased significantly.
We have certainly moved a step forward towards
realizing a nuclear-free world.

Gathering in Hiroshima, an atomic bombed city,

to as “war bills.” These were promised in his speech at

let’s once again learn about the real conditions of

they are indeed unconstitutional. Prime Minister Abe'sworld to protect the rights of nuclear victims, and for

the U.S. Congress, and many scholars have stated that

intention seems to be to establish a path for Japan totake part in military actions overseas with the U.S.

His government also is restarting nuclear power plants

within Japan and making plans to export them to othernuclear victims, and exchange ideas. Let’s appeal to thethe immediate abolition of nuclear weapons.

We look forward to your active discussion andaction. Let’s work hard and make a success of thisforum.

7

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

KeynoteKeynoteProposal
SpeechHaruko MORITAKI

Keynote Proposal for the World Nuclear Victims Forum

Haruko MORITAKI“Humankind and Nuclear Technology
Cannot Coexist Indefinitely”
Moderator:

Haruko MORITAKI

Co-Representative, Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA)
Secretary-General, the World Hibakusha/Nuclear Victims Forum[Born and raised in Hiroshima, Ms Moritaki has been involved in many peace activities. Whena nuclear war threat was heightened between India and Pakistan in 1998, she visited the twocountries and invited youth to Hiroshima for mutual exchange; three years later she visited
India again to look into the sufferings related to the uranium mining in Jadugoda. She also
visited Iraq before and after the war to investigate into the damages from the use of DU shells,
and worked as a board member of ICBUW (International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons).
She has spoken at various meetings in Japan and abroad and co-edited (in Japanese)
A World without Uranium Weapons: The ICBUW Challenge (2008), Unending Iraq War:
Questioning Anew from Fukushima (2012), and Toward a Nuclear-Free Future:   The World
Nuclear Victims Forum (2015). Recipient of the Tanimoto Kiyoshi Peace Award in 2017.]

8

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

KeynoteKeynoteProposal
SpeechHaruko MORITAKI“Humankind and Nuclear Technology Cannot Coexist Indefinitely”--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let’s issue a call from Hiroshima
to put a nuclear weapon ban treaty into effectand prohibit nuclear power generation.

Let’s strengthen our solidarity!
Unite to end the nuclear age!
No more nuclear disasters!
The grave, devastating effects of nuclear materials andAll stages and situations in the nuclear cycle (uranium

activity are being felt around the world.

mining, refinement and enrichment, production ofHiroshima gave human beings the power to extinguishnuclear weapons, the operation of nuclear power plants,

The nuclear age that began when the US bombed

human life on this planet. The hibakusha (survivors) who

experienced that hellish catastrophe are still suffering its

endless harmful aftereffects, and yet, those who wield

nuclear power in all its forms have sought to trivialize orconceal those effects. The hibakusha have had to sue thegovernment in court to obtain recognition as sufferersof radiation disease for 70years and many exposed to

the “black rain” still have never received government
assistance.

In 1954, a thermonuclear test destroyed the Bikini

Atoll, devastated the Marshall Islands and victimized theJapanese people again. On March 11, 2011, the Great

nuclear weapons or nuclear fuel, nuclear testing, use of
nuclear power plant accidents, reprocessing of usednuclear fuel, storage and disposal of nuclear waste, use ofdepleted uranium weapons, etc.) have caused widespreadenvironmental contamination and serious harmful effects
on human bodies.

More than 2,000 nuclear tests spread radioactive

contamination around the globe, robbing people of theirhealth and even their lives. Most of the victims live near

test sites, of course, but radiation can travel and strikeanywhere.

At more than 400 nuclear power plants around theEast Japan Earthquake caused another terribly destructive

world, workers are exposed to radiation even under normal

the Fukushima area and elsewhere in East Japan lost theirreleased from Chernobyl and Fukushima have taken lives,

nuclear disaster in Fukushima. A great many citizens inright to live ordinary lives in their hometowns, and theprospects of recovery seem distant and difficult.

operating conditions. The enormous amounts of radiation
health, and hometowns from hundreds of thousands ofpeople, contaminating the global environment.

9

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

KeynoteProposal
SpeechKeynoteHaruko MORITAKIUranium mining has caused leukemia, other cancers,

In 2015, during the 70th anniversary year of theand a wide variety of disorders in mineworkers. Uranium

Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, a broad

communities near mines to radiation that has caused

Nuclear Victims Forum here in Hiroshima, the site of thattailings, wastewater and air releases have exposed

fertility problems, stillbirths and severe congenital
disorders.

Depleted uranium is radioactive toxic waste produced

during the enrichment of uranium for nuclear weaponsand nuclear fuel. Hundreds of tons of bullets andprojectiles made of depleted uranium have been usedcoalition of anti-nuclear activists will hold a World
first inhumane utilization of nuclear energy. “Humankind

and nuclear technology cannot coexist.” Ours is an anti-

nuclear alliance. That is, our goal is to abolish both
nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. Our World Forum

will affirm that A-bomb survivors have played a vital rolein preventing a third use of nuclear weapons.

in the Gulf War, the Balkans, Somalia, the Iraq War

Tilman RuffBombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki.

radioactive pollution over wide areas and caused terrible

nuclear weapons is genocide and the use of nuclear

and other conflicts. The use of this ordnance has spreadsuffering in those human populations.

The utilization of nuclear energy, whether for military

The indiscriminate and mass killing of civilians using

weapons – under any circumstances – is therefore clearlya crime against humanity!

The process of nuclear weapons abolition will dependor commercial purposes, involves serious radiation

on establishing a nuclear weapons convention (NWC)

have seen this tragic reality emerge again and again, withstockpiling, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear

damage and could make the Earth uninhabitable. We

uranium mining in India, the use of DU ammunition in

Iraq, among the down-winders near the Nevada nuclear

test site, and among the people of Fukushima. Lives,bodies, and the natural environment are devastated. All of
this tragedy is inflicted on the weak and unsuspecting by asmall number of extremely powerful elite capitalists who

never hesitate to sacrifice ordinary people in their pursuitof profit. This selfish behavior is unacceptable.

Nuclear weapons, depleted uranium ordnance, andnuclear power plants have ruthlessly trampled on thehuman right to live in peace and security. We still haveno idea how to treat or dispose of radioactive waste,especially the highly radioactive waste from reactors andthe reprocessing of used fuel. The accumulation of thiswaste threatens the future of humankind.

that prohibits the development, testing, production,

weapons, as well as their elimination. “Nuclear

deterrence” actually means planning, preparing and being
willing to commit indiscriminate mass killing.

We demand for all nuclear states and other countries tostart negotiation on establishment the NWC.

Military and commercial uses of nuclear energy

represent two sides of the same coin. During thisforum, we will explore the actual conditions of nuclear
damage created by the utilization of nuclear energy.

Our participants from home and abroad will propose aninternational standards and system of compensation toassist the victims.

10

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

KeynoteProposal
SpeechKeynoteHaruko MORITAKI

Nuclear victims everywhere must cooperate to stop

We will announce in Hiroshima a Charter of Nuclear

nuclear damage and destruction. To this end, we intend

Victims’ Rights and work to obtain support for thisexpanding international networks of nuclear victims toInternational Red Cross, other international NGOs andto establish a center for nuclear damage information,fight the use of nuclear technology.

charter from the UN Human Rights Commission, theother international agencies.

We hereby call on all nuclear victims to join us.
Raise your voices!
Let’s send our appeal from Hiroshima to the world!
Let’s work together to stop nuclear destructionand end the nuclear age!

US nuclear weapons test in Nevada in 1953.

(photo: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons: CC BY-NC 2.0)

11

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

Keynote Speech

Tilman Ruff

Keynote Speech

We Can:A Healthy Sustainable Future
Can Only Be Nuclear-Free-----Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
as Our Most Urgent Task -----

Tilman Ruff

Co-founder, ICAN
Dr. Tilman Ruff is an infectious diseases and publichealth physician. Honorary Principal Fellow in the Schoolof Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne.
Founding chair of (ICAN) the International Campaign toAbolish Nuclear Weapons, recipient of the Nobel Peace
Prize in 2017. Co-President of IPPNW (International
Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) since2012. He also served as international medical advisor toAustralian Red Cross.

12

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

Keynote Speech

Tilman Ruff

I’m deeply honored to be able to speak to you today. At
the outset let me declare that I have no conflict of interestin making this presentation. I think all those commenting
on any public policy issue, including nuclear and radiation
matters, should be required to declare any conflicts ofinterest they have.

For the Survivors
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

I want to pay tribute to the extraordinary courage, humanity,
humility and inspiration provided by all the survivors ofthe Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings that I haveever met. Never have I sensed any desire for revenge or
retribution, which would be perfectly understandable, only
a heartfelt yearning that no one anywhere should ever again
suffer as they did.
Coming to this city is always very poignant for me, formultiple reasons. It was on arriving here, 26 years ago, that I
first developed the bleeding that was the initial symptom ofan aggressive cancer. Being exposed as a young boy to thefallout that passed over Adelaide from British nuclear tests is
my only identifiable risk factor for that cancer.
I would like to dedicate these remarks to former Prime
Minister and ICAN patron Malcolm Fraser, a wonderful
mentor and colleague, who died earlier this year.

Malcom Fraser, Former Prime Minister of Australia, at the ICAN Launching
Meeting (April 23, 2017, Melbourne)

In thinking about our nuclear predicament, if we are
to be responsible custodians, we must be anchored in thephysical and biological realities, and understand long-term
connections and consequences. Every phase of the nuclear
chain from uranium mining to disposal of radioactive waste
involves materials hazardous for geological time frames,with environmental and health risks at every stage.
For example, here you can see that at almost all of themore than 500 abandoned uranium mines on Navajo land,
gamma radiation levels are more than double, and in mostcases, in red, more than 10 times, background levels. Many
radioactive materials do not stay in one place, they movewith wind and water and through food chains. Here you cansee how a dust storm in 2009 spread dust from areas affectedby nuclear testing and uranium mining in Australia overmany thousands of kilometres and New Zealand within a
few days.

Dust storm in Australia, 2009. Radioactive dust was scattered over wide
range of areas from nuclear testing sites and uranium mining sites.

A nuclear power plant, even in routine operations,emits many different radioactive isotopes both in liquid
releases, and in airborne discharges. There are only a few
ways that the end products of the nuclear chain can end up:
as tailings and processing waste; contaminated facilities;
fission products contained in waste or dispersed as fallout; orin nuclear weapons.

13

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

Keynote Speech

Tilman Ruff

Coming from Australia, I am very sorry that thefallout extensively contaminating your country, alreadycausing a dramatic upswing in thyroid cancers amongchildren in Fukushima, binds us darkly, like the one
Ring in that epic tale “Lord of the Rings”.
It was confirmed in our Parliament that Australianuranium was inside each of the Fukushima Daiichi
reactors. This uranium is mined against the deep andabiding opposition of the traditional custodians of theland from which is mined.

Abolition of Nuclear Weapons is
Our Most Urgent Task
I must also express my profound dismay that Australia,
like your government, is for now more part of the
problem of nuclear dangers, rather than of the solution.
Because being serious about eradicating nuclear
weapons is not possible while claiming protection
from them, saying they are essential to Australia's
security and being complicit in their threat andpossible use. Australia hosts a number of US facilities
central to nuclear weapons targeting and use. Despite
the unchallenged fact that it is only these facilities
that make Australia a priority nuclear target for any
adversary of the US.
Many people do not yet grasp that nuclear
weapons pose the greatest risk of acute disruption of
our climate. The risk of a nuclear war, whether byaccident or design, stalks us every day. We know of atleast five instances since 1979, including since the endof the Cold War, when humanity was within a hair’s
breadth of global nuclear war. Recent studies describing
a much larger number of nuclear weapons accidents
than officially admitted underscore the reality thatunless eliminated, nuclear weapons will inevitably one
day be used again.

Various Risks:
Military Attacks and Accidents
The growing danger of cyber warfare, access to fissile
materials, and escalation of armed conflict associatedwith the accelerating impacts of climate disruption
and related water and food shortages, mean the riskof nuclear war is growing. The Bulletin of the Atomic

Scientists this year (2015) moved the hands of theDoomsday clock forward from 5 to 3 minutes tomidnight, in response to the global failure of leadershipon both nuclear and climate threats. The confrontation
between Russia and NATO over the situation in Ukraine
and Crimea demonstrates that the nuclear architectureof the Cold War has not been dismantled and the risksof nuclear war can quickly escalate. The situation in
Syria poses similarly unstable dangers.
A nuclear weapon exploded on a nuclear reactor
would dramatically increase the radioactivity released.
Military attacks on nuclear reactors under construction
have already occurred in Iraq, and in Syria. Spentnuclear fuel ponds contain vast amounts of radioactivity
in simple vulnerable buildings.
What happened in Fukushima because ofearthquake and tsunami could equally happen
deliberately, particularly with insider assistance.
Most people are aware of the Chernobyl nuclear
disaster and Fukushima disaster. What is less wellknown is that there have been 15 reactors where fueldamage or partial core meltdown has occurred, in oneof them twice. They have involved civilian and military
reactors of different designs in different countries.
The historic risk of core melt accidents is one in 1300
reactor years, and twice that for the type of reactor in
Fukushima. Unfortunately, these are far from rare or
unexpected events.

Environmental Harm:
All of us carry radioactive fallout
in every cell of our body
Nuclear weapons production has caused the mostextensive environmental harm of any industrial activity,
involving the largest cleanup costs, over $130 billion
estimated for the US alone, and the situation in Russia
is far worse. The severe contamination at Hanford, siteof production of the plutonium for the Nagasaki bomb,is one of the best known.
I was involved in a study published 20 years ago
which used very conservative assumptions to estimatethat 2.4 million people around the world would die ofcancer caused by atmospheric nuclear test explosion
fallout. This number may well be much larger. They

14

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

Keynote Speech

Tilman Ruff

can’t be named, but that makes the harm no less real. Allof us carry radioactive fallout in every cell of our body.
As we will no doubt hear in more detail laterin this conference, nuclear weapons testing has
particularly affected minority and indigenous people
who have been considered as having lesser rights.
Examples of radioactive racism abound in the conductof most nuclear test programs, of hazards dismissed asapplying only to primitive peoples, and segments ofhumanity considered expendable.

radiation can damage the large complex molecular
chains that make us who we are, especially our DNA,
our most precious inheritance and legacy for ourchildren.

Political Distortion of Science
After the Chernobyl disaster, physicians in the former
Soviet Union were instructed to avoid making any
radiation-related diagnosis.
In Japan the continued official promotion of theutter lie that there is no clear evidence that radiation
doses less than 100 milliSievert cause health harm isindefensible and reprehensible. It signifies a willingness
to expose many people to avoidable harm to reduce
costs and protect vested interests.
The superb report of the Fukushima Nuclear
Accident Independent Investigation Commission
detailed disturbing corruption and attempts by vested
interests to manipulate radiation health policy andpractice. ICRP members who should be scrupulously
independent had costs paid by electric powercompanies, a clear conflict of interest. Power companies
also sought to influence the direction of scientificresearch. Commission chair Kurokawa lamented 3
years after the disaster that little had changed in the“nuclear village.” A disturbing example of the Japanese
government attempting to downplay Fukushima healthrisks was the reported high-level pressure on WHO to
reduce its thyroid radiation dose estimates.

Ionising Radiation Damages DNA,Our Most Precious Legacy for Our
ChildrenIonising radiation is so highly biologically injurious
because the energy it carries is very much greater thanthat of other types of radiation. An acutely lethal doseof ionising radiation can contain no more energy thanthe heat in a small sip of hot tea or coffee. IonisingThis is a set of chromosomes, DNA bundles, fromthe blood cells of a New Zealand soldier. Even 50 years
after his exposure to British nuclear tests in the Pacific,
the chromosomes of this New Zealand soldier show more
frequent swapping and shifting of chromosomal fragments.
The more we know about the health effects ofradiation, the greater are the effects. Recommended
radiation dose limits have always been lowered over time,never raised. Radiation risks differ. Young children areapproximately 4 times more sensitive to the cancer inducing
effects of any given dose of radiation than are adults. Womenand girls are overall about 40% more sensitive than males.

15

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

Keynote Speech

Tilman Ruff

Limitations of the Studies on
Hiroshima & Nagasaki Survivors
In the Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors, there is aclear increase in cancer risk with increasing radiationdose without any evident threshold below which there
is no affect. And the evidence does not suggest that therisk per unit dose is reduced at low doses.
Important as the experience of Japanese hibakusha
is to our understanding of radiation and health, theLife Span Study underestimates the health harm fromradiation that hibakusha have suffered.
Large recent studies of children’s cancer risk
associated with CT scans, a sophisticated kind of x-ray,and of cancer deaths in nuclear industry workers inseveral countries, provide stronger evidence on theeffects of low radiation doses. Evidence from a numberof countries of an increased risk of childhood leukemia
for children living in areas with higher backgroundradiation, even of the order of only an additional 1 mSv
per year, add to this evidence.

Greater Risk from Low-Dose
Radiation Shown by Recent Studies
A recent Australian study followed more than 680,000
children and adolescents who had undergone at least
one CT scan, in comparison with more than 10 million
children who did not. Each CT scan delivered anaverage radiation dose of 4.5 mSv.
This study found that over the first 10 years
following a scan, the risk of cancer was increased 24%,
and 16% for each additional scan. Cancers occurredas early as two years after exposure. New cancers
will continue to occur through the life of exposed
individuals. This study involved four times the total
radiation dose and 10 times the number of people
exposed to low-dose radiation compared with theJapanese hibakusha. While the risk for leukemia related
to CT radiation was similar, the risk of solid cancer was
3.5 to 9 times higher in the more powerful CT study
Another unexpected but unequivocal finding is
the more than doubling of leukaemia risk for children
under five living near nuclear power plants in Germany(and elsewhere). The increased risk extends beyond 50
km away.
New studies published this year of large numbersof nuclear industry workers demonstrate greaterthan previously estimated risks for leukaemia andcancer. These large and powerful studies show a riskeven at quite low dose rates and doses well withinrecommended occupational limits. They do not show
a halving of risk at low dose rates compared withhigh dose rates, as assumed by a number of radiation
protection bodies such as ICRP.
In almost every nuclear accident, official
pronouncements have indicated that no discernible
health consequences would be observed. However, inalmost every situation in which adequate studies havebeen performed, health harm has been demonstrated.
Independent studies found a clear correlation between
radiation contamination levels and cancer rates in areas
around the Three Mile Island plant.
Even after the world’s worst nuclear reactor
disaster in Chernobyl, official pronouncements byagencies with conflicted interests were bland andreassuring. The epidemic of childhood thyroid cancer
gave the lie to these unfounded reassurances. It isa matter of profound concern that the lessons ofChernobyl have not been learnt and another preventable
thyroid cancer epidemic in children appears to havebegun in Fukushima.

16

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

Keynote Speech

Tilman Ruff

There is recent evidence of leukaemia excess
in the hundreds of thousands of Chernobyl cleanup
workers. And clear evidence of increased rates of neuraltube defects like spina bifida, small heads and eyes
in babies in highly contaminated Rivne province in
Ukraine.
In recent years, the risk associated with exposure
to radon gas has been set at twice the previous level.
The relationship between radon exposure and lungcancer shows that a small dose received by a large
number of people can result in a substantial healthimpact. Over 80% of radon-related lung cancers in the
UK for example, occur in people living in homes where
the radon levels are lower than the regulatory limit. The
same applies to other types of radiation exposure.
Among hibakusha it has been shown that noncancer chronic diseases, particularly cardiovasculardisease, are also increased. In recent years,
occupational studies have suggested that an increasein chronic disease also occurs at low radiation
doses. This effect would appear to double the excess
mortality risk from that cause by cancer alone. (Thishas been confirmed by more recent studies of nuclear
industry workers.)

Radiation Harms All Organisms
We often tend to forget that we share the planet withand are completely dependent on a wide variety
of other creatures. A large number of remarkablestudies by Prof. Tim Mousseau and his colleagues
in Chernobyl and Fukushima, available on Tim’s
website, have shown dramatic adverse effects ofliving in contaminated areas on a large variety ofplants, animals and microorganisms. In fact in every
biological system they have studied, a radiation doserelated impact without any threshold is evident.
They have used state-of-the-art tests to show
genetic damage in many species, here grasshoppers in
Chernobyl. Some examples include abnormal spermin birds; 40% of male birds in the most contaminatedareas of Chernobyl have no sperm. A wide variety oftumours and developmental abnormalities are seen inbirds at frequencies not found anywhere else.

This is a photo of mutated firebugs. Cataracts
found in the eyes of voles and birds. Also small brains
and reduced intelligence and lifespans in voles, miceand birds. All more frequent in more radioactively
contaminated areas.
Trees are influenced, too. Deformed anddead trees, which do not decompose normally andare vulnerable to fires which then re-disperse theradioactive materials they contain, an increasing
occurrence as global heating makes forest fires more
frequent and severe.
Furthermore, bird populations are depleted, andthere are fewer bird species. Similarly in Fukushima,
birds are fewer in more contaminated areas.

There is No Planet B
There is hundreds of times more accessible solar energy
than all human commercial energy consumption.
Renewable energy systems have minimal potential
to fuel conflict and essentially no potential for serious
accidents. During the 2011 earthquake in Japan, windturbines caused no injuries and kept generating power.
It is pleasing to see “access to sustainable, renewableenergy” included in the Sustainable Development Goals
adopted in September.
As far as we know, our small planet is the only
place in the universe which is home to the wonder ofcomplex life. There is no planet B.

17

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

A Solidarity
KeynoteMessage
SpeechDr. Alex Rosen

A Solidarity Message:

No More Hibakusha!
Dr. Alex Rosen

Vice-President, IPPNW Germany
Dr. Alex Rosen is a pediatrician from Germany. Vice-Presidentof IPPNW Germany. Dr. Rosen has been actively involved in
the ICAN since its inception in 2005. He has organized Nuclear
Abolition Bike Tours through the UK, Russia, Germany, France andJapan and founded the international public awareness campaign"Target X". He has worked extensively on the topic of the Nuclear
Chain, investigating the impacts of uranium mining, civil andmilitary use of nuclear power and nuclear catastrophes on publichealth and the environment and created a poster exhibition entitled"Hibakusha Worldwide." In late February 2016, IPPNW Germanyorganized an international conference in Berlin entitled "30 Yearsof Living with Chernobyl, 5 Years of Living with Fukushima".

18

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015
November(video message)
21, 2015

Opening Session

A Solidarity
KeynoteMessage
SpeechDr. Alex Rosen

Konichiwa,
It is a great honor for me to be invited to address you at thisWorld Nuclear Victims Forum here in the city of Hiroshima.
Regretfully, I cannot be with you in person and I thank theorganizers for allowing me to deliver my speech through thisvideo message instead. I work as a pediatrician in Berlin and
am a member of IPPNW – the International Physicians for
the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). As doctors, we areconcerned with the health of our patients.
And we know that the gravest threat to health in theworld today still comes from nuclear weapons - weapons ofmass destruction that could annihilate every ma jor city on
this planet, ending 200.000 years of human civilization in aheartbeat. For us, this is not just an abstract idea from somescience fiction movie - we know that this threat exists and it
is very real and it directly concerns us directly – as doctors
and scientists, but also as human beings and as citizens of
this planet.

The Last Chance to Abolish Nuclear
Weapons
For more than 35 years, IPPNW has been engaged in the
struggle to abolish nuclear weapons. We have lobbied
governments, held discussions with high-ran king militaries,
organized large public demonstrations, published scientificarticl es and educated the public about the humanitarianeffects of nuclear weapons. For reaching out across the Iron
Curtain during the Cold War and for convincing Gorbachev
and Reagan to sit down and negotiate nuclear arms reducti
on treaties, IPPNW was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in1985 - an honor that accompa nies us until today as a moral
obligation and compels us to continue our important work –abolishing these horrible nuclear weapons, these weapons ofmass destruction.

This is why we founded ICAN, the International
Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which Tilman
Ruff has introduced to you and which might just posethe best chance for serious progress in nuclear abolition
that we've had for the past 25 years. Perhaps the last goodchance we have: You are all aware of the escalation in theSouth Chinese sea, the military stand-off between India andPakistan in Kashmir and the renewed confronation between
NATO and Russian forces here in Europe over the issue of
Ukraine, and the volatile situation in the Middle East, where
five nucle ar weapon states - Russia, Israel, the US, the UK
and France - are now directly involved in the bloody civil
war in Syria. The call for nuclear abolition has never been
more urgent.

19

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

A Solidarity
KeynoteMessage
SpeechDr. Alex Rosen

Nuclear Industry Engangering Peaceand Life

We also know that it is not possible to address the threat ofnuclear weapons without also talking about the industry
behind them companies making millions of dollars withthese weapons of mass destruction, who exert pressure
on politicians and the military to generate more orders fornewer, more modern nuclear weapons.
Even as we speak, nuclear arsenals in Russia, the US
and all over Europe are being made more powerful, more

deadly - and more useable. But we are not just talking about
the weapons manufacturers. The heart of the problem lies
with the nuclear industry. This industry has, with massive
government support, created a vast nuclear infrastructure-from uranium mines fissile material is brought througha complex transportation network to processing andenrichment facilities, where it is packaged into fuel rods
for the civil nuclear industry and into warheads for militaryuse - only to end up as nuclear waste and as burden forgenerations to come.

20

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015
November(video message)
21, 2015

Opening Session

A Solidarity
KeynoteMessage
SpeechDr. Alex Rosen

There are no adequate or acceptable solutions
for managing the enormous quantities of radioactive
waste, which need to be safely deposited and guarded
for hundreds of thousands of years not in Japan, notin Germany, nowhere on this planet.
In most nuclear weapon states, the institutions behindthe civil and the military nuclear industry are virtually
identical. The reason is simple: the creation and thedevelopment of military nuclear programs required nuclear
reactors, where uranium could be processed to plutonium.
The fact that this process releases a lot of energy led to theperfidious idea of promoting nuclear energy production
around the world under the slogan of „Atoms for Peace” apublic relations masterpiece by the US nuclear lobby.
Even here in Hiroshima, the campaign “Atoms for
Peace” was presented in order to start a Japanese nuclear
industry as early as the 1950's. The message to the Japanesepublic back then: The technology that had brought so muchpain and sufferin g to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
and that had the potential to destroy the planet was now
supposed to contribute to world peace by producing massive
amounts of energy.
What people were not told, however, was the factthat a civil nuclear industry and with it an infrastructure for
uranium mining, transport and refinement of fissile material
could at the same time serve military purposes. Every single
state that has produced nuclear weapons first had to build up
a civil nuclear industry. The simple truth is: without nuclear
power plants, ther e would be no nuclear weapons - andwithout nuclear weapons there would be no nuclear power
plants.
As peace activists, we look at the nuclear industry andsee how it contributes to nuclear proliferation and endangers
world peace. As doctors, we look at it from a public healthpoint of view as well. And we see that every part of the socalled nuclear chain causes detrimental harm to our Planet
and to our health.

Hibakusha around the WorldWe see it as our responsibility as doctors to educate people
about the connections between the civil and the military
nuclear industry and about the health effects of ionizing
radiation in general. We therefore thought about creating

an exhibition that would show the various ways in which
the nuclear industry negatively affects health and theenvironment.
Initially, we were not sure how best to approach
this subject until we realized that as doctors, the greatstrength we have is our close connection to the af fectedpulations. And thus, the idea was born, to focus on„Hibakusha.“ Around the world, the survivors of thenuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known
by the Japanese term „Hibakusha.”
Many of these Hibakusha have been courageously
working for a world free of a nuclear threat. They do notwant to see future generations having to endure the same
experiences they did. Because of this, they have dedicatedtheir lives to the struggle for a better world, a world freeof the nuclear threat, and have begun to tell their stories toyounger generations.
Over the years, the term “Hbakusha” has been
globalized. People in Kazakhstan, on islands in the
Pacific, in the Australian Outback, around the Arctic Sea
everywhere where nuclear weapons were detonated andwhere people have been affected by radioactive fallout andthe contamination of their homes, people have been callingthemselves “Hibakusha.” Hibakusha from Japan have been
active in reaching out to these people, inviting them to theirconferences and including them in their call “No more
Hibakusha!”
They, too, want to tell their stories and prevent future
generations from having to endure their fate. And there
are also other groups, which have had to suffer under the
nuclear industry: the inhabitants of uranium mining regions,such as the Australian aborigines, the people of Jadugoda
in India or Native Americans in Canada and the US. The
mining of uranium for nuclear weapons and nuclear power
plants has turned once flourishing countrysides into nuclear
wastelands.
Where uranium was discovered, mines were opened
and soon enough, radioactive waste rock, mine tailings andprocessing refuse were dumped in rivers, lakes and forests.
In every place on earth, where uranium is mined, miners
and the surrounding population suffer from the effects ofradioactive contamination.
Even here in Germany, in the Erzgebirge, we see until

21

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

A Solidarity
KeynoteMessage
SpeechDr. Alex Rosen

today, the harmful effects of decades of uranium mining on
people's health and the environment. People's homes wereradioactively contaminated and their health compromised
all for the insanity of the nuclear arms race and the profit of
the nuclear industry. They, too, are Hibakusha. Their stories
must be heard as well.
When the Fukushima catastrophe began in
March 2011, and I say “began”, because it continues
until today, the term “hibakusha ” took on a newmeaning in Japan.

Many of the people affected by the nuclear meltdowns
and radioactive fallout also began calling themselves“Hibakusha and it dawned on many that nuclear energy andnuclear weapons are really only two sides of the same coin:
Both require uranium; both require uranium enrichment;
both pose a substantial proliferation risk; both can severely
harm the environment and people’s health, and both are
inhumane because they do not allow for mistakes; andmaking mistakes is perhaps the most human trait of all.

Let’s Listen to the Vioices of Hibakusha
We know today that civil nuclear energy is not as safe as
the nuclear lobby has always claimed. In fact, even here in
Germany, where we have not had major nuclear accidents,
the rate of childhood cancers around nuclear power plants isincrease d significantly. Mankind has had to learn the hard
way that the promises of the nuclear industry are not worth
the paper they were written on.
Three Mile Island in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986 andFukushima in 2011 - three major nuclear catastrophes in
32 years, countless smaller spills, leaks, accidents, nuclea
r incidents and millions of people who were affected byincreased levels of radiation an d who now have higher risksof developing cancer and other radiation-associated diseases- because there simply is no safe dose of radiation no matter
how small.
As doctors we know: Every person on this planet has
a right to health and to life in a healthy environment. This
universal right should apply also to the people affected by
nuclear fallout and by radioactive contamination. They, too,are Hibakusha and there stories deserve to be told as well.
So it was soon clear that this exhibition, which you canvisit here during this conference, could only have one name:“Hibakusha Worldwide”. The exhibition consists of 50
case studies of places around the world, where the nuclear
industry harmed the environment and public health. It is
important to realize that this exhibition is not meant to becomprehensive. Beside these 50 cases, there are many more
all over the world, which would just as well deserve to be
included in this exhibition.
These posters are illustrations of the problem. They aremeant to raise questions, to demonstrate connections and toshow the extent to which we, as a human race have caused
harm to our planet, our environment and to our health.
The exhibition is dedicated to the millions ofpeople whose lives have been affected by the nuclear
industry: indigenous people whose homes were turned
into nuclear wastelands by uranium mining, theDownwinders of more than 2,000 nuclear wea pons
tests, the survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima andNagasaki, and the people e affected by radioactive
fallout from civil and military nuclear incidents.
All of them would have had better lives, if the uranium
had been le ft where it belongs: in the ground. I thank you
for this opportunity to address you today and hope that our
exhibition can contribute to this very important conference.
Arigato gozaimasu to all of you for taking time out ofyour busy schedules to be in Hiroshima today and to fightfor the rights of Hibakusha around the World. I see no betterway to close this speech than with the powerful call of the
Hibakusha themselves:
No more Hiroshimas!
No more Nagasakis!
No more Fukushimas!
No more Hibakusha!
Arigato gozaimashita

22

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

OpeningSession
Session 23
Opening
KeynoteSpecialSpeech
ReportToshiko NAITO

Toward a World
that will Create
No More Victimsof Nuclear Bombs
and Radiation

Special Report

Toshiko NAITO

Plaintiff representative for the No More Hibakusha
lawsuit in Hiroshima
Ms. Toshiko Naito was exposed to the A-Bomb at the age of
11 months when she was being carried on her mother’s back,on the platform of Koi train station, roughly 2.4 km from the
hypocenter. She was soaked with the black rain while hermother fled to escape. All of her eleven family members were
exposed. Two of her older sisters were killed by the A-bomb,and one was never found. In 2008 she made an application
to be recognized as an “A-bomb cataract” patient, but her
application was rejected. Filing a lawsuit at the Hiroshima
district court In January 2011, she has been taking part in the
No More Hibakusha lawsuit as its representative.

1. My A-bomb Experience
My name is Yoshiko Naito. Thank you for having me
today.
In August 1945, I was 11 months old. I have nomemory of what happened, but each year when
August 6th came, my mother would talk about thattime to me and my sisters. She always said, “Thiscan never happen again!” She couldn’t bear thethought of such suffering, such a catastrophe visiting
this Earth again. The stories she and my sisters told
me through the years live on—through me, as mybomb experience.
My parents had one son and eight daughters, ofwhom I’m the youngest. Mother and all eight of us
girls directly experienced the bomb. Two of my sisters
were killed; one’s remains were never found. Whenthe bomb dropped, my soldier brother was on active
duty elsewhere, and my father was in Ihara, Okayama
Prefecture. When they returned to Hiroshima and were
exposed to the residual radiation, they became “entry
survivors.”

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

KeynoteSpecialSpeech
ReportToshiko NAITO

Children going to school wearing masks; May 20, 2011, Fukushima City
(Photo: Naomi TOYODA)

The Children’s Peace Monument, designed by Kazuo KIKUCHI, in
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was modeled on Sadako SASAKI, whodied of atomic-bomb induced leukemia. (Photo: cic33/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

At 8:15 on August 6, with me on her back, mymother was bound for the home of my aunt (myfather’s sister) in Itsukaichi. She was standing on
the platform at Koi Station, 2.4 kilometers from the
hypocenter. The flash. Then the blast. In that instant,she pulled me off her back and jumped off theplatform, covering me with her body. When she got
up, she fled toward Koi Mountain. She stopped in an
air raid shelter to nurse me, thinking, “At least oneof my children is still alive!”
She set off again for my aunt’s house. Whenshe rounded the Ishiuchi Ridge, a heavy, sooty rain

began to fall. She tried to protect me by placing a thinhandkerchief on my head. After great struggle, we madeit to our relative’s house in Itsukaichi. My uncle wentout that day looking for my sisters and came back with
Sister No. 6, who was severely burned on her arms,
face, and neck. The next day, early in the morning, myaunt, my cousin, and sisters No. 2, 5, and 7 all made it tothe house in Itsukaichi. Sister No. 4, however, had been
exposed on her way to do some shopping downtown.
Her remains were never found. Every year, when the listof newly identified victims is issued, we look for someclues as to what happened to her, but we have neverfound anything.
My mother always told us that, when she left
with me that morning, Sister No. 4 gazed after us as
we walked away. Mother urged, “Come with us!”but Sister said, “I’ll wait here.” The rest of her life,
Mother lamented, ‘If only I’d taken her with me!”Sister No. 3, a second-year student at Jogakko
Girls School, was exposed at Fujimi-cho, where herclass was mobilized to demolish buildings. She had burns
all over her back. My father later rode to an elementary
school in Fuchu-cho where she had been taken in. He
hoisted her onto his bicycle. Somehow, they rode thisway for 16 kilometers (about ten miles.) On August 16,
she said, “Mother, come soon!” Then she took her last
breath. Mother never stopped mourning the daughters
she lost. “What happened to them—it was too sad!”24

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

KeynoteSpecialSpeech
ReportToshiko NAITO

2. Our health after the bombing
After the bombing, I suffered diarrhea, vomiting andfever. Mother, too, had diarrhea and vomiting for years.
I grew up frail. I had little appetite and was prone tofevers that kept me away from school. As an adult I was
plagued by headaches, hyperlipemia, abnormal bloodpressure, leukocytosis, cerebral aneurysms, and otherailments. I still suffer from poor health.
One day in 1983, when I was at work, I was
attacked by such a raging headache that I couldn’t
even sit still. The doctor who examined me said thatthe bottom (or diastolic) number in my blood pressure
reading was under 40. I’ll never forget this shock.
Thereafter, from summer’s end through fall, I sufferedfrom anemia, diarrhea, vomiting, and headache. No
reason for this seasonal change was ever discovered, but
it continues. Even now, my health plummets in the fall.
Such unaccountable symptoms are common
among those exposed as young children. The young
are highly susceptible to the effects of radiation. I
was an infant. I worry about my children as well.
That worry hounds me.

3. The struggle for recognition ofradiation-induced diseases

Over ten years, the struggles of survivors to have ourillnesses recognized as stemming from our exposure
made significant gains. Class action plaintiffs won 29
consecutive suits and the criteria were revised twice.
In August 2009, a confirmation statement was signed
between the Japanese government and plaintiffs.
However, the national government (the Ministry of
Health, Labor and Welfare) have not kept the promise
they made in the confirmation statement. They promised
to “refrain from fighting in the courts and to resolve
conflicts by discussion henceforward.” And yet, thegovernment has continued to insist on investigations
related to certifying diseases as related to exposure that
contradict the decisions handed down in class action
lawsuits.
As a result, rejections of atomic bomb diseasecertification petitions have risen sharply. In 2019,117 hibakusha who did not accept the government’s
rejection of their cases initiated No More Hibakusha
suits in seven district courts.
In March 2008, I petitioned to have mycataracts recognized as caused by my exposure, but
my petition was rejected. Therefore, in January 2011,
I joined a No More Hibakusha lawsuit. Hiroshima
plaintiffs in that No More Hibakusha lawsuit number 27.
For elderly hibakusha, the five years that have lapsed
since the first group in October 2010 have been long andgrueling, but we were able to continue thanks to support
from many quarters.
The deliberations of the A-bomb Disease
Certification Investigative Committee that began in
December 2010 resulted in a third criteria revisionin December 2013; however, rather than “resolving
the differences between the judicature and theadministration,” the new certification criteria (2013 New
Policies) actually worsened the policy.
Then, the government (the Ministry of Health,
Labor and Welfare) issued the 2013 New Policies as
new limits on certification; their stance—defining
the effects of radiation as narrowly and minimally as
possible—is unaltered.

25

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Opening Session

SpecialSpeech
ReportKeynoteToshiko NAITOThis year on May 20, the court handed down adecision to four plaintiffs that ruled solely on whether
their cataracts could be certified as radiation-induced.
Two of the cases were dismissed and two won. My
case was one of the two that won, but the government
appealed the case to a higher court. The stance of thegovernment (the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare)is infuriating. The first oral pleadings will begin in
December. I won't let my petition be denied.
The personal examination of the remaining district
court plaintiffs is beginning. Their trials will take time,
but we are moving steadily forward. We resolve tocontinue the struggle until all 27 plaintiffs win theircases. We ask from our hearts for your continued support.
We hear that the government (the Ministryof Health, Labor and Welfare) fears that decisions
concerning bomb exposure certification might
affect the prospects (compensation, etc.) for victimsof the Fukushima Nuclear Plant disaster. Thoughdecontamination operations were conducted throughout
Fukushima, four and a half years later, uninhabitableareas remain. Reports of radiation leaking fromcontaminated substances are continuous.
In post-bombing Hiroshima, even though a typhoonand flooding carried off a certain amount of radioactive
material, radiation still pervaded the environment that we
hibakusha had to live our lives in.
The government (the Ministry of Health, Laborand Welfare) continues to insist that, “The doses theplaintiffs received from the atomic bombing wereinsufficient to harm their health. Their exposure fromresidual radiation, both internal and external, is alsolow.” We say that is wildly false; it does not reflect thereality of radiation exposure.
Last month, on October 29, the Tokyo District
Court trial ended with an excellent ruling: all 17 plaintiffs
won their cases. The verdict dealt a harsh blow to the2013 New Policy: “The misguided policy does not reflect
the realities of A-bomb exposure.”
Now we are calling for implementation of thecomprehensive demands made by the Japan Confederationof A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon
Hidankyo). The demands are: 1. Abandon the current
atomic bomb disease certification system; 2. Provide

Survivor Allowance to all atomic bomb survivors; 3.
Establish additional allowance classifications according
to the level of disorder.
Additional allowances are provided for thosediseases for which the effects of radiation exposure arerecognized and for which limits imposed by distancefrom the hypocenter and time lapsed before entry to thecity cannot be specified. We call for the A-bomb Victims
Relief Law to be revised accordingly.
The government (the Ministry of Health, Laborand Welfare) has lost successive No More Hibakusha
suits, and the 2013 New Policy has been entirely
discredited. Now that the average age of hibakusha
is over 80, we’re out of time; we can wait no longer.
We cannot tolerate the government’s policy of
waiting for suffering elderly hibakusha to die. We
cannot tolerate their narrow, minimizing definitions
and outright dismissal of the realities of radiation
damage. The government must confront the errorsof the certification system and immediately begin
comprehensive reform.
In December, trials concluded in the Fukuoka
High Court, the Nagoya District Court, the Tokyo
District Court, and the Osaka High Court. Their rulings
will be announced this spring. We feel that our arduous
climb toward resolution of the problem of recognitionof atomic bomb disorders is nearing the summit.
We fight this fight to clarify the facts about radiation
damage and how it works. We want to bring help andrelief as soon as possible to all who suffer ailments
brought on by radiation exposure. We ask for yourcontinued support of our efforts.
Japan has not fought a war since World War II.
We should be proud of the beneficial global influenceof Japan’s constitution. Let us guard its precious
Article 9 and work toward a world without nuclear
weapons.
Holding close my mother’s words “This cannever happen again!,” I will continue to fight. Thankyou very much.

Please click here to go back to the program

26

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 27

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage

Session 1

The World Nuclear Victims Forum

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage

Uranium mining, nuclear testing, Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, nuclear energy
accidents, nuclear energy labor, the reality of damage caused by depleted uranium weapons[1] Uranium Mining………………………………………………………………………………………28

Coordinators : ann-elise lewallen (Associate Professor. University of California, Santa Barbara): Haruko Moritaki (Secretary General, WNVF)
Presenters: 1) Petuuche Gilbert (US: Acoma Pueblo, Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment,
Uranium Mining Affected Indigenous community) ……29

2) Ashish Birulee (India: Jadugoda Uranium Mine Anti-Radiation Alliance)……30[2] Nuclear Tests………………………………………………………………………………………32

Coordinators : Seiichiro Takemine (Associate Professor, Meisei University): Noboru Tazaki (Executive Director, Elimination of Nuclear Weapons Earth Citizens'
Presenters:

Assembly Executive Committee Nagasaki)

1) Karina Lester (Australia: Australian Nuclear Free Alliance, ANFA) ……33
2) Enver Tohti (China: Lop Nur Project)……35
3) Mary Dickson (U.S.A.: downwinder; writer) ……38
4) Seiichiro Takemine (Japan: researcher)[3] Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings……………………………44

Coordinators : Katsuaki Aoki (Joint Representative, WNVF): Mitsugi Moriguchi (Executive Director, Nagasaki Testimony Association)
Presenters: 1) Seiji Takato (Hiroshima Hibakusha, Plaintiff for the Black Rain Class Action Lawsuit) ……45
2) Shohei Tsuiki (Nagasaki Hibakusha,) ……48
3) Sim Jintae Diretor, Hapchon Chapter of Korean - Hibakusha Association ……51

[4] Nuclear Accidents/Nuclear Labor (Chernobyl, Fukushima) …………54

Coordinators : Ichiro Yuasa (Former Representative, Peace Depot): Hajime Shiraishi (Executive Producer, Our PlanetTV)
Presenters: 1) Alexander Velikin (Russia: Liquidator) ……55
2) Anton Vdovichenko (Russia: Radymich Representative, Chernobyl Nuclear
Accident Victim Support NGO) ……66

3) Kenichi Hasegawa (co-representative, Fukushima Nuclear Accident Victims Network) ……58
Commentator: Katsutaka Idogawa  Previous Mayor of Futaba Town, Fukushima[5] Nuclear Waste Use and Depleted Uranium Shells …………………62

Coordinators : Maki Sato (Secretary General, JIM Net=Japan Iraq Medical Network): Naomi Toyoda (Photojournalist)
Presenters: 1) Hideyuki Ban (Director, Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center) ……63
2) Jawad Al-Ali (Cancer Advisor, Iraq Ministry of Health) ……64
3) Kareem Abdulsada Abd Ahmed (Director, Basra Cancer Prevention Center) ……64

Welcome Reception
Moderators:
Greeting:
Music:

Shoji Kihara (Director, We Don’t Want Nuclear Power Plants Hiroshima Citizens’ Group): Michiko Yamane (Director, WFC=World Friendship Center): Meri Joyce (International Coordinator, Peace Boat)
Tadatoshi Akiba ( Previous Mayor of Hiiroshima)
Shinobue (a kind of bamboo flute) by Koto

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

[1] Uranium Mining

Session 1 28

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage

Coordinators :Haruko MORITAKI
ann-elise LEWALLEN

Associate Professor. University of California, Santa
BarbaraProfile: Associate Professor of East Asian Languages &Cultural Studies (with specialization in Cultural Anthropology),
University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. Involved with
Indigenous Ainu cultural revival movements since the 1990s.
Since the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, Ms lewallen
has been investigating environmental justice issues with afocus on Indigenous peoples in relation to the nuclear cycle,
as well as indigenous peoples and research ethics. She aims
for research that embodies her commitment toward “research
as a tool for host community empowerment.” In California,
she teaches courses about the anthropology of Japan,
multiculturalism and gender, indigenous social movements,
environmental justice, and research ethics.

Speaker :Gilbert PETUUCHE

U.S.A.: Acoma Pueblo, Multicultural Alliancefor Safe Environment, Uranium Mining Affected
Indigenous community
Profile: Mr. Gilbert Petuuche Gilbert is from anindigenous community called Acoma Pueblo in New
Mexico, U.S.A. He has participated in indigenous
events at the United Nations since 1986 and he has
attended meetings at the Organization of American
States to work on the Inter-American Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He is currently presidentof Indigenous World Association, an UNESCO NGO,
vice-president of the Laguna Acoma Coalition for a Safe
Environment, and a member of the Multicultural Alliancefor a Safe Environment in the Grants Uranium District.
Retiring from the Pueblo of Acoma tribal government,
he remains engaged with the Pueblo of Acoma on
community and environmental concerns.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 29

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[1] Uranium Mining

NO NUKES!

From Four Corners (New Mexico)
To Fukushima
UT

AZ

Abstract:
New Mexico is the birthplace of the atomic bomb. It
also hosts two national nuclear research laboratories,
the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for nuclear waste,
and an uranium enrichment facility. It is also thehomeland of the indigenous peoples who have
lived there for more than 10,000 years. Many
indigenous ruins and sacred sites like Mt. Taylor are
located in the region. 50 years of uranium industry
has contaminated land, water, air and has affected
people’s health. The Grants Uranium District locatedin the state was once the busiest place in the world
for uranium mining. Grants called itself the Uranium
Capitol of the World. U. S. EPA has identified 97
abandoned mines, called legacy mines, and 5 mills
within the mining district. They have also identified
500 abandoned mines adjacent is the Navajo Nation,and the federal, the state, and the tribal governments,
are all working on the cleanup of these places. Todaythe local communities are facing a new proposedmining. Roca Honda Mine, partially owned by
Japan’s Sumitomo, is making plans to open a newmine. Thus, legacy mines and mills plus new mining
will continue contaminating the region’s people,
land, water and sacred areas.

CO

NM

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 30

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[1] Uranium Mining

Uranium Mining in Jadugoda, India:

The Struggles of
the Indigenous People
Visiting Hiroshima

Speaker :Ashish Birulee

Photojournalist, Jadugoda Uranium Mine
Anti-Radiation Alliance, India
Mr. Ashish Birulee, aged 26, was born andbrought up in Jadugoda. Mr. Mirulee works as
an independent photojournalist and has been
documenting the problems in Jadugoda, which
he has been witnessing since childhood; his own
grandparents died of lung cancer.

In the year 2002 Mr. I participated in the peace program(hosted by Indian & Pakistani Youth Peace Exchange)
in Hiroshima along with Sneha Anurag and filmmaker
Shriprakash. It was a life changing participation whichshowed me the true picture of nuclear madness globally. I
realized the situation of Japan and Jadugoda to be similar.
Returning back from Hiroshima, I gave greaterattention to the issue. I got involved into J.O.A.R (Jharkhand’s
Organization Against Radiation) activities. I began to work as a
guide; an interpreter for many journalists who published photoessays on Jadugoda. Seeing the photojournalists trying to bringawareness through the lens inspired me to become one likethem. I started photographing the victims, and I am
trying to become a mediator through my photography
to the world.
My photo essay “Jadugoda, Drowning in Nuclear Greed”
was exhibited at the 3rd International Uranium Film Festival,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2013 and also in different cities in India
like Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ranchi, and Tatanagar.
As I wanted my photos to be used for public awareness,my photos went through online publication in Galli
Magazine, a homegrown journal in India, as well as in DW,
Germany. I have also participated in the World Uranium
Symposium in Quebec City, Canada in 2015 and my photo
exhibition was also a part of it.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 31

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[1] Uranium Mining

India’s Nuclear Program and its Impacts

According to the nuclear program in India, the DAE(Department of Atomic Energy) is planning to make India
reliable on Nuclear energy. The impacts of the greater needfor uranium could be witnessed in Jadugoda. Today there are
7 uranium mines in total in the state of Jharkhand: Jadugoda,
Bhatin, Narwapahar, Turamdih, Bandhuhurang’s open castmining, Muhuldih and Baghjata.
Jadugoda and Turamdih mines have mills including
3 tailing ponds in Jadugoda and another in Talsa village
near Turamdih. All these mines, mills and tailing ponds areconstructed on the lands of indigenous people. The people
are less educated, and the radiation issue is too scientific forthem to understand. It is why neither the MLA (Members ofLegislative Assembly) nor the MP (Member of Parliament)
have ever raised a question in Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha.
JOAR (Jharkhandis Organization Against Radiation) has
been fighting against radiation for more than 20 years andwill always continue.

Fight against Uranium Tailing Ponds

UCIL’s 3 tailing ponds situated near Chatikocha andDungridih are fully filled; hence, UCIL needs to construct the
fourth tailing pond. For the fourth tailing pond Chatikocha
and Tilaitand village were supposed to be acquired and thenotification had been issued, but, due to JOAR’s agitation,
UCIL could not acquire the lands. Today UCIL has no lands
to acquire. UCIL now has a new project to extend the 1st
tailing pond to 10-15 meters in height. This extension of
1st tailing pond will submerge the Jaherthan (sacred place
for worship). JOAR, Jahergarh Suraksha Samiti and Majhi
Pargana Mahal, these three organizations together haveagitated and stopped the work of extension in the 1st tailingpond since June 22, 2014.

The madness and greed still continue

In the name of development and nations defense,
unaccountable lives have been sacrificed and there is still
no regret in the government body. The madness and greed
still continue till date. The incidents of Fukushima andChernobyl have awoken many people, but not Indian
government. It is waiting for much greater disaster.
JOAR (Jharkhandis Organization Against Radiation)
would like to give a message to the people of Hiroshima andall those who are affected by radiation that together we willcontinue to fight for a safer environment and future generations.

It would be wrong to say that “we have enoughtime to fight these issues. None of us have seen thecreation of our Mother Earth, but if we don’t succeed
within time, it is for sure we will witness its End.”

Message to the Forum
ShriprakashIndia: Documentary Director, “Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda”

Jadugoda is a tiny village in the Eastern part of India, locatedin province of Jharkhand. It is famous for several uranium
mines, mills and dams. There are several mines (one open cast),
two mills and four tailing dams. This area is home to tribal
communities namely Santhal, Ho and others.
Around 1960, exploration for uranium started in thearea; local communities were completely unaware of impact ofhazard of uranium radiation. Strange illness, unnatural deaths,
still births, miscarriage, sterility in couples is the reality. They
could not comprehend the reason. It was their own experienceof the new problems which became their outcry. For last 20
years, Jharkhandi Organization Against Radiation (JOAR)
and many other individuals and organizations have tried tofind answer to the new situation facing the tribal communities
in Jadugoda. In their quest for the reason, they knocked every
possible doors- health study, street protests, going to the
judiciary, seeking help of the media to carry reports—and allseems to have miserably failed.
It is sad that while, on the one hand, Indian scientists
are trying to explore the solar system, the Moon and Mars as
new frontiers, the Communities in Jadugoda are not able tofind the reason for their misery. And neither are the scientificcommunities willing to help them in discovering the correct
reason behind their miseries.
The film screening and photo exhibition is showing thecurrent situation of the communities. Support from Japanese
antinuclear organization and other part of the world is very
crucial for the people of Jadugoda. Hope that this conference
will highlight the plight of the communities and that justice may
dawn in their lives.
Mr. Shriprakash’s new documentary film shown at the Forumis entitled NABIKEI footprints Southwest: A journey to reveal
the legacy of uranium mining in southwest of USA.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 32

[ 2 ] Nuclear Tests

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[2] Nuclear Tests

Coordinators :Seiichiro TAKEMINE

Associate professor at Meisei University in Tokyo
Profile: Mr. Seiichiro Takemine (Japan) was born in 1977.
Ph.D. (International Studies: Waseda University). Coconvener of a research committee on Global Hibakusha
and a board member of the Peace Studies Associationof Japan. Mr. Takemine has conducted field researchconcerning nuclear testing issues in the Marshall Islands
since 1998. His publication in Japanese includes Still
Living with Nuclear Fallout in the Marshall Islands(Owarinaki kaku-higai wo Ikiru), 2015.

Noboru TAZAKI

Executive Director, Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
Earth Citizens' Assembly Executive Committee
Nagasaki
Mr. Noboru Tazaki worked at the Nagasaki City Hall for 33
years. During his time there, he took part in international
exchange for 10 years and atomic bomb and peace
related governance for 23 years. He coordinated theoffice for the Peace Declaration Drafting Committee
under City Mayors Hitoshi Motoshima and Iccho Ito.
After leaving his position at the city hall in 2003, hecompleted his master’s degree at the Nagasaki University
Faculty of Education. From 2005 until 2014, he was apart-time lecturer at the Nagasaki University Exchange
Student Center. Mr. Tazaki is the secretary-general of the
Executive Committee of the Nagasaki Global Citizens’
Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons since2009 and a member of the Nagasaki Atomic Bombing
Museum Administration Council since 2013.

Speaker :Kalina Lester

Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA)
Ms Kalina Lester is very much devoted to the selfdetermination for her people and the maintenanceof the Anangu culture. She continues to play anactive role in the South Australian Government’s
Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle
speaking up strongly about the impacts of the
Nuclear Tests and reminding Government of thestory Anangu (Aboriginal people) have to share. Ms
Lester is currently the co-manager and Aboriginal
language worker for the Mobile Language Team,
University of Adelaide, and is very passionate about
the maintenance of her language, Yankunytjatjara.
She is also very enthusiastic about the revivalof the highly endangered languages of South
Australia. She also currently a director with the First
Languages Australia with the portfolio of remotedelivery, speaking strongly about the importance of
maintaining, reviving and reclaiming our Aboriginal
languages at the National level.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 33

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[2] Nuclear Tests

Anangu –Nuclear victims
Cultural Survivors(summary)

It was October 1953 in outback South Australia at a place
known as Walatina by the westerners but to Anangu tjuta it
was Walyatjata home of the Nyinytjiri tjuta – lizard people,
the Yankunytjatjara people. That day started like any otherday with us kids playing in the sand dunes, Mum went off
to work for the white pastoralist family to scrub the floors,
wash the dishes and do the washing by hand. Us kids wererunning around getting up to no good until we heard a large
blast and smaller ones in between before we saw the black
mist rolling. Rolling silently towards the main camp. Dad
recalls, “the day the ground shook and the black mistrolled.”This is the day my Father’s life changed completely.
Many of our family became very ill within days becauseof the fall out with rashes, sore eyes, respiratory
problems, vomiting, and even death. There are stories in
our family where family had to bury their loved ones, where
the skin was burnt badly that infection set in, and like my
Father’s story when he lost his right eye within three weeks
and then when he went totally blind by 1957. The only thing
they could prove in the Royal Commission (British Nuclear

Tests in Australia, 1984) was that there was radiation fall out
over Walatina. Anangu suffer to this day not only because of
their health but struggle to come to terms of a Government
and its actions.
In South Australia there were many tests conductedunder the agreement struck between the Australian andBritish Government, and it wasn’t until the 50th Anniversarythat we later learnt many tests were conducted. Between
1952 and 1963 the British Government, with the agreement
and support of the Australian Government, carried out
nuclear tests at three sites in Australia – the Monte Bello
Islands off the Western Australian coast, and at Emu Field
and Maralinga in South Australia.
Maralinga was developed, as the permanent proving
ground site, following a request of the British in 1954, and,after its completion in 1956, was the location of all trials
conducted in Australia. It was developed as a joint facility
with a shared funding arrangement. Following the two major
trials (Operation Buffalo in 1956 and Operation Antler in1957) there were a number of minor trials, assessment tests
and experimental programs (dating from 1959) held at therange until 1963. Maralinga was officially closed following
a clean-up operation (Operation Brumby) in 1967.
South Australia was again on standby after theFederal Government in February 1998 announced
their plans to build a national radioactive waste dumpin South Australia. After shortlisting eight regions
across Australia, they identify Billa Kalina. The Federal
Government proposed the co-location of two separate
facilities within the Billa Kalina region:
One: a shallow burial dump to bury low-level waste;radioactive for up to 300 years.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 34

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[2] Nuclear Tests

2015, by His Excellency the Honourable Hieu Van Le
governor of South Australia:
1. Exploration, Extraction and Milling
2. Further Processing and Manufacturing
3. Electricity Generation
4. Management, Storage and Disposal of Waste

Two: an above ground facility to store intermediate
long-lived waste; serious radiation hazard for up to 10,000
years, requiring isolation for up to 250,000 years.
In the far north Opal Mining Town of Coober
Pedy, Senior Anangu Women held a meeting to discuss“which way we were going to stop the Government
and who was going to help us.” These amazing womenfrom Yankunytjatjara, Kokatha, and Antikirinya stoodstrong and said “No Nuclear Waste Dump in our Ngura”(country). There began the ‘Irati Wanti Campaign’.
For six long years these amazing women rallied,
wrote letters, engaged with Politicians, engaged with thewider community, shared their stories and sang and criedfor their Ngura (country). They were winners in 2004 withthe then South Australian Premier Mike Rann making apersonal visit to meet with the women and congratulatethem on their success. During the ordeal, late Mrs. Eileen
Kampakuta Brown in January 2003 was awarded a Memberof the Order of Australia for her service to thecommunity “through the preservation, revival
and teaching of traditional Anangu culture andas an advocate for Indigenous communities
in Central Australia.” That same year Mrs
Eileen Kampakuta Brown along with the lateEileen Wani Wingfield, were both awarded theprestigious American based Goldman Awardfor the Environment. This was a huge successand their stories live on in their family and thegenerations that follow.
In February 2015 the South AustralianGovernment announced a Royal Commission
in the Nuclear Fuel Cycle and South Australia’sRole in the Industry. The following Terms ofReference were signed off on the 19th March

The Commissioner Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce will beleading the fact, finding exercise that covers the above Termsof Reference and deliver a report to the Premier of South
Australia Jay Weatherill by the 6th May 2016. Currently theRoyal Commission is at its hearing stage and will then do aconsultation on its findings to the wider community in the
New Year.
On Friday 13 th November 2015, the Federal
Government released its shortlist of six sites for nuclear
waste storage of which three of them are in South Australia.
The three sites in South Australia are Cortlinye; Pinkawillinie(both in the Kimba Region, in the Federal electorate ofGrey) and Barndioota (Flinders Ranges region in the Federal
electorate of Grey).
These regions identified are on Aboriginal Landand land that is culturally significant for the local
Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people are again being
ignored of their rights as traditional owners of their land
and face again another battle of victimization but thistime it is the next generation that needs to “Talk Straight
Out”.
THANK YOUThe World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 35

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[2] Nuclear Tests

After 48 Detonations:the Human Cost of
the Chinese Test Program
Speaker :Enver TOHTI

China: doctor, Lop Nur Project
Profile: Dr. Enver Tohti worked as a cancer surgeon
at the Railway Central Hospital in Urumchi from
September 1985 until July 1997. Between 1994 and1996, Dr. Tohti secretly and systematically recorded
the details of cases of cancer, after he became
alarmed at the disproportionately high rates of thedisease amongst Uighur patients. In 1997 Dr. Tohti
leaked his findings to a team of Western journalists
who were making a documentary film entitled ‘Deathon the Silk Road’ about the nuclear tests. This
documentary was broadcast in over 80 countries
including Japan and the UK (on Channel 4). As aresult of this documentary, Dr. Tohti was forced toleave China and in 1999 he was granted refugee
status in the UK.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 36

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[2] Nuclear Tests

Abstract:
The focus of the paper is analyzing and exposing
the devastating and long run consequences ofnuclear bomb test, in the far western part of China,
to the living and ecological environment of theregion. Various forms of methods were applied
during the research; this includes analyzing
data from a thematic survey commissionedby the state on the disproportionate spread ofmalignant incurable diseases in the area. It alsobrows extensively from the author’s personal
interviews during his long career as a practicing
senior surgeon, and enriched with other sourcesfrom publications and researches results withdifferent provenance. The Chinese state always
underplayed the effect of the nuclear test on
the life of the local people and the surrounding
environment, and rigorously denied theconnection between the wide spread of cancer
in Xinjiang with the constant exposure to theradioactive pollution caused by the test. The
reality is that, today, according to the statistics
resulted from the official survey in area, thecancer rate in Xinjiang is 35% higher than that in
China proper and the trend has not reversed, yet.
Conclusions:
The author argues, the prevailing of malignant
tumour is caused by radioactive pollution in theregion, and the destructive after effect of thetest will continue to claim countless innocent
lives, unless the state takes a responsible stepand prevent from further damaging the alreadyvulnerable land. However, the evidences suggest
that, the contamination still continues in the formof damping the toxic nuclear wastes in the oldtesting cites.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 37

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[2] Nuclear Tests

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 38

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[2] Nuclear Tests

American Hibakusha:

Speaker :We Are All
Downwinders

Mary Dickson
WriterLiving in Salt Lake City, U.S., M. Dickson has written about the healthconsequences of nuclear testing in the U.S. and has worked on theissues of peace and justice for more than 30 years. Her 2007 awardwinning play, Exposed, was a landmark work that put a humanface on a chapter of American history seldom explored in drama or
literature. It combines the very personal story of the playwright andher sister, victims of U.S. nuclear weapons testing, with powerful
documentation, including declassified portions of Atomic Energy
Commission records, interviews, to show the human toll of 40 yearsof nuclear testing on U.S. soil. She has spoken about the humanconsequences of nuclear testing at various conferences. In 2013
she was recognized by the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility inWashington, D.C. for her lifetime work on behalf of downwinders.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 39

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[2] Nuclear Tests

In 2008, I spent two weeks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki with
the Nuclear Studies Institute from American University.
It was an amazing journey that included visits with many
Hibakusha, a word used to describe survivors of the bomb.
Their powerful stories still haunt me.
When I spoke to students at Ritsumeikan University
in Kyoto, I was surprised when I was introduced as an
American Hibakusha. I had never thought of myself thatway. But I realized that I am also a Hibakusha. I, too, ama survivor of the bombs exploded on American soil by ourown government.

935 Tests in 40 years

Between 1951 and 1992, the U.S. government exploded 935
nuclear bombs above ground at the Nevada Test Site not
far from Las Vegas, putting unsuspecting American citizens
living downwind in harm’s way. When atmospheric testing
was banned in 1962, testing moved underground until 1992.
Many of the underground tests leaked, sometimes spewing
visible mushroom clouds into the atmosphere.
Radioactive fallout from four decades of nuclear
testing has left a devastating legacy not only in my home
state of Utah, which was directly downwind of the Test Site,
but across the entire United States. We became victims of thedeadly winds of the Cold War.
My name is Mary Dickson and I am what we call adownwinder. Like tens of thousands of other Americans,
I grew up under the clouds of fallout from nuclear testing.
My life and my work have been shaped by what happened
to me and to many people I love at the hands of our own
government — all in the name of protecting us from
communism during the Cold War.

Radiation Map

I carry a credit card sized map of the United States in mywallet. It’s from Richard Miller’s book, Under the Cloud:the Decades of Nuclear Testing. It shows where the winds
carried radioactive fallout from testing in Nevada. Utah andNevada are almost completely blacked out, and the black
ink spreads as far East as New York and as far North as
Canada, with ink blotting hundreds of cities across America,
including the region where most of our nation’s food isgrown.
Radiation did not respect arbitrary lines on a map.
It was picked up by the jet stream and carried across thecountry, where it fell to the ground in rain and snow andworked its way into the food chain. That’s how it reached
and was measured in Salt Lake City, the Midwest, and 2,300
miles from the test site in upstate New York, and Canada.
That’s how a 1953 test named Simon collided with the worst
thunderstorm in 100 years and doused upstate New York,
where researchers at the Rennslauer Polytechnic Institutemeasured radiation in the rain spouts and the water flooding
playgrounds. It’s how radioactive fallout was carried to Los
Angeles in 1958 where it was trapped in an inversion. How
many of the cancers in those areas may be linked to fallout?
I’ve shown this map to people around the U.S. andthey’re always shocked. They had no idea that the fallout
spread so far, crossing over their cities and towns. I carry
this map as a way of bearing witness and as a warning to
make sure that nuclear testing is never resumed. I don’t needreminders of what fallout did to the people living in thoseareas of black on Miller’s map. There is another map I carry,
one that is drawn by the scars on my body.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 40

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[2] Nuclear Tests

I Am the Radioactive Material

The Earth shifted for me in the spring before my 30thbirthday when I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, acancer common in those who were exposed to fallout aschildren. My world lost its predictability with two words:“It’s malignant.” Facing surgery and radiation treatment,
I didn’t think it mattered how I got it. The only thing thatmattered was to get rid of it. The surgeon cut out my thyroid
and the lymph nodes around it. A few days later they gaveme radioactive iodine to drink to destroy any remaining
cancerous tissue. The nurse wheeled me to my hospital roomin a high-backed wheelchair made of lead — to protect her
from me. A sign on the door of my room warned: “Caution!
Radioactive Material.” Stamped on my hospital bracelet was
the radiation symbol. I was the radioactive material.
Everyday, a radiologist opened my door and pointed his
Geiger Counter at me to see how “hot” I was. I was isolated
in the small hospital room until the reading on the Geiger
Counter was low enough that I could be around people again.
Before I went home, the doctor cautioned me not to be aroundbabies or pregnant women for a few more days. He told me
not to get pregnant for a year. I never did get pregnant. A few
years later, endometrial tumors necessitated a hysterectomythat meant I would never have a child.

Eating Contaminated Food

I had grown up drinking fresh milk from a nearby dairy,
eating fresh vegetables from the garden, mixing sugar withsnow to pretend it was ice cream, and playing in puddles ofrainwater. How were any of us to know that what we were
eating and drinking was contaminated with radiation? How
were we to know that a silent poison was threading its way
through our bodies when our government repeatedly assured
us that there was no danger. They gave us booklets telling
us that “some of you have been inconvenienced by our test
operations,” telling us not to let reports of Geiger counters
going crazy bother us.
They encouraged people living near the Test Site towatch the blasts as a family activity. How were any of us
to know that the radioactive debris in those awe-inspiring,
towering mushroom clouds would devastate families andcommunities across America? We couldn’t see the radiationthat fell on plants, landed in water, and made its way into thefood chain and into our bodies.
When the fallout drifted across the skies, no sirens rangout to signal the danger. We blithely went about our lives
assuming we were safe. We trusted our government when it
assured us we had nothing to fear.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 41

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[2] Nuclear Tests

Sadly, Our List Continues to Grow

After I got sick, I began keeping a list of friends andneighbors who had cancer and autoimmune diseases. My list
now includes 54 people who lived in a five-block area near
my childhood home in Salt Lake City. My childhood friend
Tammy is first on the list. She died of a brain tumor when wewere 10. Her little brother died three weeks later of testicularcancer. He was only four years old. Their devastated motherasked their pediatrician if it was a coincidence that 10 otherpeople in our neighborhood also had cancer. Over the years,
other people from my childhood neighborhood, including
my best friend, her sister and her father, have died of cancer,
leukemia, lymphoma, and other fallout-related diseases. So
many have died that one of my schoolmates years later said
he felt lucky to have made it to age 40.
Maintaining the list hasn’t been easy. Many of myold neighbors have moved away, taking their illnesses andtheir medical histories with them. I read the obituary notices
looking for more names I might recognize. The obituary of aman who died of bone marrow cancer ended with the simple
declaration, “He witnessed atomic testing.” I stumbled
across the obituary of a beautiful woman who had died after
a long battle with a rare blood disease. Only when I saw thenames of her survivors did I realize she was the sister of achildhood friend who had lived on my street. Two days later
I learned that another friend had died from the brain tumor
that plagued her since we were teenagers. Then, in 2001,
my sister Ann, who had helped me collect names for the list,
died after a long struggle with an autoimmune disease. She
was only 46 and her three children would grow up without
their mother.

“Where is My Leg, Mama?”

Where I am from, ours are not unusual stories. I know otherpeople who keep lists of the sick and dying. Irma Thomas,
who lived in St. George, Utah kept her list on a chart on her
living room wall. An X marked each home where cancer
had claimed someone. Elmer Pickett carried a tattered pieceof paper in his pocket bearing the names of nine family
members who had died. A state senator’s list included
neighbors, both of his parents and his sister. Sadly, our lists
continue to grow. My grandfather, cousin, aunt, cousin’s
husband, coworkers, friends.
As a journalist and activist, I’ve listened to countlessstories of those made sick from radiation exposure – thesoldier who marched with troops into ground zero after a

blast at the test site so that the military could see what effectit would have on them. He now has multiple myeloma.
The mother who bore a child with all of its organs on theoutside of its body. The doctor in the Midwest who foundexcessively high levels of colon cancer among his patientsand later discovered that his county had been one of those
hit hard by fallout. The woman whose husband died ofcancer and then watched helplessly as her five-year-old son
developed bone cancer. After waking up from surgery, helooked up at her and asked, “where is my leg, Mama?”

Endless Stories of Suffering

The more I wrote and spoke out, the more I testified at public
hearings, the more people began coming to me with theirstories.
The activist who told me about the day she wasbrushing her hair as a young woman and it fell into the sinkwith a chunk of her scalp. After years of being dismissed asa hysterical housewife, a specialist finally diagnosed her withspontaneous immune system failure — a disease he told her
was likely related to radiation exposure.
I have heard endless tales of sickness and suffering,of children born with birth defects, of too many deaths. The
stories are heart-breaking. After one early morning call froma stranger who told me she had lost three babies to leukemia
in the 1950s and now has two adult children with cancer, I
sat outside on my porch swing crying for all of the people
whose stories broke me.

Power of Stories

There is power in these stories. The people who share thesestories are not numbers. They are not one of the statistics.
They are human beings who have suffered, who havewatched their loved ones die, who were innocent victims ofCold War government policies.
Stories are my most powerful tool. In 2007, I wrote avery personal play called “Exposed” combining my story
with what I had learned. It ended with a somber reading of
my list of the dead. After each performance, the cast invitedaudience members to add names of downwinders on thewall outside the theater. In just a few nights, they had added
so many names, we had no room left on the wall.

The Atomic Energy Commission Knew
What’s Going On

What’s hard for many of us to reconcile is that ourgovernment knew the facts — about fallout, about

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 42

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[2] Nuclear Tests

contaminated milk, about the susceptibility of children —and that they lied to the people. People like me, my sister,and my friends.
Declassified minutes of the Atomic Energy
Commission confirm that the government misled us, covered
up the facts, and endangered us. In the early years of testing
when one AEC commissioner expressed concern about
reports of livestock and people dying, another commissioner
responded, “Nothing is going to get in the way of testing,nothing!” and suggested that what was needed was “judicious
handling of public information.”
A 1954 AEC agreement barred the U.S. Public
Health Service from releasing any information to the public
about the radiation released from tests. The Health Service
could be subject to criminal liability if it disclosed suchinformation. That agreement stayed in effect until 1970.
Harold Knapp, a former AEC employee, has admitted
that the government definitely knew what was going on.
“All evidence suggesting that radiation was having harmful
effects, be it on the sheep or on the people, was not only
disregarded, but actually suppressed.”

What were the Ethicsof Nuclear Testing?

What are the ethics of nuclear testing? The late 20th Century
philosopher Mary Midgley wrote an essay called “Trying
out One’s Sword.” In it, she told of Tsujigiri, the ancient
Samarai practice of trying out a new sword by cleanlyslicing an innocent passerby in half. Tsujigiri is a word inclassical Japanese that literally means “crossroads cut.” To
work properly a Samurai’s sword had to slice through aperson with a single blow. The unsuspecting wayfarers onwhom the Samurai’s tested their swords became expendable.
Like those innocent wayfarers, citizens living
downwind of nuclear testing were also deemed expendable
by governments who justified the tests as necessary fornational security.

The U.S. wasn’t alone in testing nuclear weapons.
I participated in a symposium on the Shared Legacies
and Lessons of nuclear testing with representatives from
Kazakhstan, who spoke about the devastating effects theSoviet Union’s nuclear tests had on the people of their country.
A downwinder friend of mine, who spent time in
Kazakhstan, visited with a Soviet downwinder. When myfriend asked him, “What did your government tell you?”the Kazakh replied, “They told us that if we didn’t test, you
American capitalists would be here in the morning. What
did your government tell you?” My friend responded, “Theytold us that if we didn’t test, you Russian Commies would behere in the morning.” Both men sadly concluded that theirown governments had done to them what the feared enemy
could not.
The military justified testing, saying that it saved lives,
but we know that the Cold War had casualties – in America
and in every country where nuclear weapons were tested.
Barbara Rose Johnston, the author of Half-Lives and Half
Truths, says that contrary to claims of American and Soviet
officials, the arms race did not prevent nuclear war; rather it
was a nuclear war.”

Many Unknown Victims

Those of us who have survived that undeclared war arewalking witnesses that radiation works in strange ways. It
doesn’t kill you out right. It attacks cells that mutate and cantake years, even decades to manifest as cancer, leukemia,
or immune system diseases. The genetic damage radiation
causes can be passed on to future generations, which meansthat many fallout-related diseases have yet to surface.
Not only does the long lag time between exposure
to fallout and illnesses make it hard to prove that they arelinked, it also makes it easier for the public and our leaders
to ignore us and the fallout that we are convinced made us
sick. Had we become ill or died immediately following those
explosions in the Nevada desert, our numbers would havebeen considered a national catastrophe. But since the healtheffects can take decades to appear, they’re easier to dismiss.
Sadly, the vast majority of downwinders will never knowthat they are casualties of testing.
And sadly, the burden of proof always rests on thevictims. Science demands conclusive evidence, but there isalso the undeniable evidence of our own experience. This
much I know: for most of our lives, we lived downwind.
And there is evidence showing the health effects ofradioactive fallout.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 43

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[2] Nuclear Tests

We Will Never Know
How Many Have Suffered

A 15-year study by the National Cancer Institute released in
1997 showed that radioactive Iodine-131 from atmospherictesting fell on virtually every county in America andpredicted that 212,000 lifetime cases of thyroid cancer alone
may be linked to fallout. I-131 is just one radioactive isotope
in fallout. Others are far more lethal.
And fallout wasn’t contained when testing moved
underground. One underground test in the summer of1962 hit my community especially hard. The director ofRadiological Health at the University of Utah measured
dangerously high radiation levels from that test named
Sedan. He found that milk in dairy farms across northern
Utah contained 21 times the acceptable levels of I-131. He
estimated that 53,000 children could have been affected bydrinking radiated milk resulting from that one test.
It’s impossible to know how many cancers andother illnesses may be linked to fallout. In 1958, whenunpredictable winds blew the radioactive cloud of fallout
over Los Angeles, six million people were exposedover several days to more than 1,000 times the normal
background level of radiation. Dr. John Gofman, a physicist
who had worked on the Manhattan project, predicted that
20,000 people would die prematurely due to their exposure.
Some estimates of American fallout range as highas 800,000. Whatever the number, it’s fair to say thatatomic testing exacted a heavy human toll. When you
look at nuclear testing worldwide, the number of people
who may have been affected is mind boggling. How many
communities, neighborhoods and families around the world
have suffered? We’ll never know.

We Must Share Our Stories: We Are
ALL Hibakusha

The story of nuclear testing and its consequences is notincluded in American history books, nor is it generally
understood by the public. When I asked students in a class
I taught, “Who knows about atomic testing in Nevada?”
there was a deafening silence. The sad truth is that mostAmericans — and that includes elected representatives —don’t know the story of testing. After lobbying Congress, it
became apparent to me that a new generation of lawmakers
knows very little about this chapter of American history.
Too many of us have become ill and too many of us
have had to bury the dead. I have been sliced, scooped out

and radiated, and I have watched my sister take her last
breath in agony. So many of the downwinders I worked
with who dedicated their lives to keeping the story alive are
literally dying off. Who will serve as witnesses when they
are gone?
My own experience and everything I’ve learned has
made me passionate about ensuring that our stories are notforgotten. We must never forget the legacy of nuclear testing.
Those of us who are still living must share our stories, as
painful as it is to do so.
May our experiences serve as a warning. May
those of us from nations around this globe who know firsthand the tragedy of nuclear testing stand together to demandthat the mistakes of the past never be repeated. May wenever again be deemed expendable in the name of national
security. May we do all we can to ensure that no government
ever again sacrifices innocent human beings by testing
nuclear weapons.
If we learned anything from being the unwitting
subjects of the misbegotten program of atomic testing, it isthat we all live downwind. We are all Hibakusha.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima[ 3 ] Hiroshima
and Nagasaki
Atomic Bombings

November 21, 2015

Session 1 44

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[3] Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings

Coordinators :Katsuaki AOKIJoint Representative, WNVF
Born in Hiroshima City in 1948.  K. Aoki’s mother was a hibakusha.
Graduate of Yokohama City University Medical Department. Former
director of Hiroshima Kyoritsu Hospital. Co-director of Hiroshima Alliancefor Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA). Member of Hiroshima
Hibakusha Support Network and Physicians Against Nuclear War (PANW).
Since moving to Tokyo in 2019, Dr Aoki is an active member of Tokyo
Physicians for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

Speaker :Mitsugi MORIGUCHI

A plaintiff in the “Black Rain” Class
Action Lawsuit

Executive Director, Nagasaki Testimony Association
Mr. Moriguchi was born in 1936 in Mizunoura, Nagasaki. After
graduating from the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Nagasaki University,
he became an elementary school teacher. After retiring in 1997,
Mr. Moriguchi joined “Testimonies of Nagasaki Association.”
As its secretary-general, Mr. Moriguchi gathered and compiled
hibakusha testimonies to  get them known more widely.
From July 31 to August 1 in 1945, the Mitsubishi shipyard near hishome underwent a three-day air raid. At the command to “evacuate
the district,” people evacuated to the Urakami district where the air
raids were less frequent. Luckily, his older sister (6th grade), younger
brother (1st grade), and Mr. Moriguchi (3rd grade) were able toobtain train tickets to move to Kashima, Saga prefecture. When the
A-bomb was detonated over Nagasaki on August 9, his father’s
ironwork was destroyed and his elder sister and brother were injured
since they were mobilized as student workers at the factory, but they
were able to recover from their injuries.

Seiji TAKATO

At the age of three, S. Takato was exposedto the black rain at about eight kilometers
west of the hypocenter. According to thegovernment’s classification, this area is notincluded in either the “heavy rain area” or
the “light rain area.” In 2002 he became thefounding secretary-general for the “SaekiWard Black Rain Group.” He also serves asa regular member of the board of directors
for the Hiroshima Prefecture A-bomb Victims
Liason Council as well as executive directorof the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederationof A-Bomb Sufferers Organization.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 45

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[3] Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings

Seeking Expansionof the Black Rain Areas

Heavy and Light Rain Areas
The atomic explosion created a mushroom cloud. Later,a black rain containing radioactive substances fell over awide area. The national government drew lines indicating“heavy rain” and “light rain” areas. The heavy rain area wasdesignated a “black rain area,” and a system was created toreimburse medical treatment costs of survivors who were inthat area. Even though many victims in the light rain areas
and elsewhere were suffering medical problems, they wereabandoned. They were offered no assistance whatsoever.
The suffering residents of those light rain areas have beenfighting for 37 years to expand the areas recognized as “black
rain areas.”
Pressed by that movement, Hiroshima Cityand Prefecture conducted a survey of 27,000 people,
accompanied by 900 extensive interviews. The report issued
in 2010 redrew the black rain area six times larger than theoriginal. Based on an A-bomb Experience Health Awareness
Survey, they began petitioning the national government
for expansion of the black rain areas. The Ministry of
Health, Labor and Welfare established a Black Rain Study
Commission that met nine times to study the report by
Hiroshima City and Prefecture. In July 2012, they made theirconclusions public.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare completely
refused to recognize the situations of survivors described indetail by Hiroshima City. The Ministry stated that outside
the “heavy rain areas,” “radioactive fallout resulting fromthe Hiroshima bombing has not been confirmed.” They went
on to say, “…neither internal nor external exposure can be
confirmed” and “…the illnesses of those currently suffering
were caused not by exposure but by excessive anxiety about
exposure.”
I have visited survivors of the black rain and haveturned those interviews into a book entitled Black Rain and
Claims of Internal Exposure.

Black Rain Absolutely Did Fall

My house was 14 kilometers west-northwest of the
hypocenter. We were at the end of a steep mountain trail
above Uokiri Dam. When the bomb exploded, I was
three, but I remember it clearly. I saw red light, then blue
light. It came at me hard, as if to pierce my skin. I heard anenormous boom and felt a powerful quaking.

The small oval is the Heavy Rain Area; the large oval is the Light RainArea. The even larger area that includes all of Hiroshima City is the black
rain area revealed by the Hiroshima City/Hiroshima Prefecture A-bomb
Survivor Health Awareness Survey.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 46

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[3] Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings

Across the valley, a mushroom cloud appeared.
It got bigger and bigger. Dirt and debris and burning
paper ash came blowing up the valley. Later, black rain
fell. I’m not sure if I got wet, but I know that my sisters,
Matsuko, Takeko, and Umeko, came back from school
drenched.
The victims arrived later. People with terrible burns.
Their skin was red. Their clothes were burned and sticking
to their flesh. And they were all so silent. They came andsat on our veranda or on our dirt floor and just rested. My
mother and sisters gave them water and tea. They applied
Mercurochrome. At noon, they gave them rice balls.
Looking back, the ragged clothes of the victims, their
red skin, their singed hair—they were all covered withradiation. I’m sure our floor and front room were soon fullof radioactive particles. When my cousin’s child Tadayuki
Iwaoka (3) got there, we ran and played among the victims.

A-bomb WearinessSoon after I married at age 23, I went to the hospitalwith what I thought was a cold. I was diagnosed withhypothyroidism. Looking back, I think it was probably what
was then called “A-bomb fatigue.” I’m still taking medicine
for that.

At 60 I was diagnosed with diabetes. I can’t believe
it’s due to my diet. At 68, I got a cerebral infarction and havebeen in rehabilitation ever since, but my paralysis remains
severe. Every day is a struggle against disease. At 72 years
and 8 months, I was diagnosed with marrow dysplasia
syndrome, a form of leukemia or blood cancer. At that point,
my future went completely black.
■ When my eldest sister, Matsuko, was 51, she had
thyroid surgery and commuted to Hiroshima
University Hospital for three years. The doctor said,“You were in the bombing, right?” Five years ago,she suddenly collapsed. An ambulance took her to thehospital, where she was admitted to the neurosurgery
department. The cause and even the name of her
disorder are still unknown.
■ The next in line, Takeko, had such poor health that she
hardly ever went to school. When she was in her firstyear of junior high school, liquid was removed fromher lungs. She soon died of acute pleurisy.
■ The youngest, Umeko, had thyroid surgery at Kyoto
University Hospital. At 52, she died of lung cancer
and multiple organ failure.
■ My cousin’s child, Tadayuki Iwaoka, died of lungcancer at 66.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 47

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[3] Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings

The Government Says, “Show Proof!”

Now look at the case of the Kawamoto sisters. It is clear thatthey were in an environment with plenty of radiation.
The diseases they got can reasonably be attributed tothat exposure. At the city hospital and the university
hospital, the doctors asked, “Were you in the bombing?”
At their doctors’ recommendation, they applied for
A-bomb health books, but were rejected. “You were notin the black rain area.”
The national government keeps saying, “Proveto us there was radiation in your area.” But the
Makurazaki Typhoon that came along on September
17 washed much of that radiation into the sea. How
can they provide something they don’t have? They
shouldn’t have to. The national government should
do a serious investigation. After drawing a line toindicate the black rain area, it would seem only natural
to investigate the doses of radiation and the healthconditions of people living near that line.
The Kawamoto house was in a village called
Shirakawa, right where wind blowing up from the
Yahata River runs into wind blowing down from
Gokurakuji Mountain. These winds had to havecarried radiation. There were about 25 households in
Shirakawa, and the number of people there who havedied of thyroid problems and cancer is extremely high.
At this time, only the eldest Kawamoto sister, Matsuko,
is still alive. The government has drawn a line todemarcate the black rain areas, but they need to think
more carefully about the way the winds blow and theinfluence of topography.
The Kawamoto family cared for victims who fled
the city and rested in their home until they could returnto their own homes. They came into the house withradiation all over them. The home of Taeko, the youngerof the Kawamoto sisters, was filled with radioactive
particles. She applied for recognition as a survivor basedon her relief activity, but this, too, was rejected.

All Radiation Effects Research
Foundation data from within 2km

In February 2013, the Black Rain Association met
with Chairman Ohkubo of the RERF. He told us, “Theenormous amount of data collected by RERF is all fromwithin 2 kilometers. We do not have data on external orinternal exposure at greater distances.”

We also learned that RERF ignores the effects ofresidual radiation; it studies initial radiation only. The
RERF index forms the basis for the ICRP (International
Commission on Radiation Protection). This data
determines official radiation tolerances, so this omission
is a disaster.
The Black Rain Study Commission of the Ministryof Health, Labor, and Welfare has determined what
can be ignored or what has no effect. Because thosedecisions are made despite the lack of data regarding
residual radiation, we’re not convinced.
The national government may be covering up
problems related to internal exposure or exposure
at distance. Many victims have died because of theblack rain, and even now, survivors are suffering fromaftereffects. And the same thing is happening to those
exposed by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. I can’t
stand thinking about this.
Our group of 66 plaintiffs are fighting thegovernment in court to prove that we are hibakusha.
We are demanding expansion of the black rain areas.
Asking for your full support and collaboration, I thankyou very much.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 48

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[3] Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings

Exposed at 1.8km; andsurvived by luck

The bombing of Nagasaki at 11:02am, August 9, 1945. By the end of that year, that one bomb had killed approximately 70,000.
(Photo: Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum)Speaker :Shohei TSUIKI

Hibakusha in Nagasaki, Former Junior High School Teacher
Born on March 6, 1927. When exposed to the A-bomb in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, Mr.
Shohei Tsuiki was 18 years old and a student in his second year at Nagasaki Normal School.
Working as a mobilized student at an ammunitions factory, Mr. Tsuiki was exposed to the
A-bomb at the school dormitory, 1.8 km from the hypocenter.
In 1970 Mr. Tsuiki founded the “Nagasaki Prefecture Hibakusha Teachers Association” andbecame its first chairperson. He has spoken about his A-bomb experience on more than 1,000
occasions, including over 20 times in six countries other than Japan. On August 9, 2013,
Mr. Tsuiki presented a “Hibakusha Pledge” on behalf of all A-bomb survivors at the Peace
Memorial Ceremony in Nagasaki.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 49

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[3] Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings

I was 18 and in my second year at Nagasaki Normal School,
but toward the end of the war, we had no time to study.
I was working in a military factory. The week of August 9, I
was on night duty. That morning, I was sleeping in the school
dormitory 1.8 km from the hypocenter, the distance thatappears in my A-bomb Survivors Health Book.

I survived only through several lucky breaks.
I was Lucky

I Thought I Had Arrived in HellI was physically exhausted and deep in slumber. An airraid warning awakened me but cleared immediately. I
stayed in bed, curled up in my futon. Despite the heat ofsummer, I always slept like that “to keep the bombs away.”
Suddenly—I learned later it was 11:02—my dreams wereinterrupted. With a loud boooom, I was lifted into the airand hurled against something hard.
I had never heard of anything like an atomic bomb. I
had no idea such a thing existed. An atomic bomb had been
dropped on Hiroshima three days earlier, but the government
was keeping that quiet. All we knew was that some new typeof bomb had been used. I wondered briefly what that “newtype of bomb” could be, but I soon forgot all about it. I kept
going to the factory and coming back to the dorm as usual.
Now, I stood up and looked at myself. I was coveredin blood. My first thought was, “A bomb must have hit thenext room. Whew, that was lucky.” I got out, headed for thebomb shelter. But outside, I saw my neighbors. They wereseriously burned. Then I noticed that I, too, had burns on myleft arm and leg where they’d been outside the futon. My
burns didn’t hurt, so I focused on the bleeding. It was all sostrange. Why were so many people burned? And why sobadly?
What I saw is what you see in photos displayed at
the A-bomb museum. Their faces looked terrible. I evenwondered if they were really human. Had I died and arrived
in hell? I felt so sorry for them. The toppled houses began toburn. Many were trapped under the rubble, unable to escape.
They burned to death in there. This is the horror of war, I
thought.

I was in one of the two sections that didn’t collapse. I’m
surprised myself by how lucky that was. Students who
had been in the dorm were dragging themselves aroundwith their skin hanging off their arms. One with an
injured back couldn’t walk. He was trying to crawl away.
I may have been one of the students she saw.
Actually, 1.8 kilometers was near the border between
life and death. Those further out did not die, at least not
immediately. Those who were one kilometer or closer
were burnt black and dead. At 1.8 kilometers, people
were badly burned or injured, but still alive.
I was told to head to the emergency relief station,and I did. I walked and walked. All along, the houses were
flattened. Gradually, the damage grew less extensive, buteven at 10 km, roof tiles had been blown off. Arriving at
the relief station, I received some treatment and spent thenight. There, again, I was lucky. My family had fled tothe same station earlier. We found each other. They took
me to our evacuation home and cared for me there. This
stroke of luck, too, was crucial to my survival. I havekeloid scars on my left arm and leg, but not on my face.
Everyone said I was lucky to survive, but for the
next three weeks, I was on the verge of death. I lost
all my hair. I had a high fever. I couldn’t eat. I had
terrible diarrhea. All around the neighborhood, people
like me who had fled from closer to the hypocenter
were dying. I would hear, “That one died. The one overthere died.” They said that all who got the purple spots
would die. I got purple spots, so I was sure I was going todie.
Instead, I somehow survived and was able to returnto Nagasaki after three months. I found the city nicely
cleaned up. No bodies were lying around, but factories
were still piles of twisted metal. Except for reinforced
concrete buildings, the city had been reduced to a flat
plain. When I saw that, I thought, “If we have a third
world war, the whole planet will look like this.”

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 50

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[3] Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings

I’ve come to hate everything.
In the A-bomb plain now stands a giant
peace statue. A grand thing,
but what else could have been done withthat money? I wonder.
You can’t eat a stone statue. Stone doesnothing for hunger.
Don’t tell me I’m low-minded.
Mine is the mind of a victim who was barely
Hanging on for ten years after the bombing.

Poem by Sumako Fukuda

Some time after the war, I learned about Sumako
FUKUDA, who became a famous A-bomb poet. Ms.
Fukuda had graduated from a local women’s college andwas working in the office of Nagasaki Normal School.
That was my school, so I want to share what she wrote.
The office was in a ferroconcrete building that did
not collapse, but she was in the break room in the woodenbuilding right next to it. When the bomb exploded, it
threw her onto her stomach. After a while, she was able
to get up and go outside to see what had happened. Forty
percent of our school buildings were made of wood andflattened. She saw teachers and students lying in theathletic field, some writhing in pain. Most were probably
dead. She looked toward the dormitory, which wascollapsed except for two sections that were still standing,though twisted out of shape.
I would like to end my talk by quoting some lines
from her poem entitled “Talking to Myself.” She isprotesting, as a hibakusha, the Peace Statue, which is now
a symbol of Nagasaki.

(From Talking to Self by Sumako FUKUDA)

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 51

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[3] Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings

Hapcheon, Korea’s Hiroshima:
Postwar Trajectories of
Korean Hibakusha

Speaker :SIM Jintae, Korean hibakusha
President of the Hapcheon Chapter,
Korean A-bomb Sufferers Association

Mr. SIM Jintae is of the first generation hibakusha. In conjunction with the Concerned
Association of Second Generation Korean Atomic Bomb Survivors, Mr. Sim is to establish
a place of peace called the Peace Museum (House of Peace in Hapcheon) and engage
with civil society groups (Joint Meeting for Special Recommendation for the Korean
Hibakushas and Sons and Daughters) in the movement for creating a special law. In May
2015, Mr. Sim served as a Korean in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Conference in
New York to spread awareness about the issues faced by Korean hibakushas and lobby
for the nuclear weapons abolition and human rights movements as well.

Interpreter :Kang Jesuk

Co-director, The Solidarity Association to Promote a Special Lawa for the Korean
Nuclear Victims and their Children

I am Sim Jintae from Hapcheon,
known as Korea’s Hiroshima because
we have more hibakusha thananywhere else in Korea. I was born in
Hiroshima in 1943 and experienced
the bombing there.
When the US dropped atomic
bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
on August 6 and 9, 1945, Koreansmade up an estimated 100,000 of thetotal of 740,000 hibakusha in the twocities. My father was among the vast
number of Koreans

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 52

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[3] Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings

conscripted by Imperial Japan.
He was forced to work at a militaryfacility. The Koreans who survived
the bomb numbered somethingover 43,000. After liberation, they
returned home, but due to the bomb’s
aftereffects compounded by poverty,social disdain, and a lack of proper
treatment, they died.
As of 2015, only 2,650 hibakusha
were registered with the Korean
A-bomb Sufferers Association.
The Japanese government ignored
Korean hibakusha and discriminatedagainst them, even excluding us
from the A-bomb Victims Relief
Law. To right this wrong, we have,for decades, brought suit after suitagainst the Japanese government.
Moreover, the suffering extends tothe next generation of survivors,
who have also been ineligible forassistance. Japan was a war-criminal
nation. It should stop denying its
history of invasion and colonial
rule. It should apologize to andcompensate the victims.
The US, the country thatdropped the bomb, should alsooffer compensation. Absolutely.
All countries that possess nuclear
weapons should immediately begin
dismantling and ridding themselvesof those weapons. As long as theycling to nuclear weapons, there canbe no world peace. The best possible
treasure we could leave to ourdescendants is a world without war,a world without nuclear weapons, aworld of peace and friendship.
To all of you here, to theprofessors and lawyers who havesupported Korean hibakusha, I express
my gratitude. Thank you for listening
to my testimony.

------------ Q&A -----------Sim Jintae, thank you very much.
Do we have any question from thefloor?
Ms. Mika NORO:I am here from Hokkaido, where
I serve as liaison with Chernobyl.
We are working to support thec h i l d r e n o f C h e r n o b y l . Yo u r
struggle for recognition as
hibakusha has continued for 70
years. I believe you have been to
the Peace Memorial Museum. Here,the official line is that there areno genetic effects, but I hear thathibakusha always count the fingers
and toes of children who are born intheir families. After the Chernobyl
disaster, many of the Chernobyl
hibakusha have been unable to havechildren or their children have been
harmed by radiation.

Maybe from fear of
discrimination, but hibakusha
don’t seem to talk about thisproblem much. The governmentsof Hiroshima and Nagasaki say
the effects are not passed on
genetically, but I think it more
likely that these effects are ignored.
What do you three think about thegenetic effects of the atomic bomb?
Seiji TAKATO:
They say there are no genetic
effects, so I don’t want to sayanything I’m not sure of, but I
speak to a lot of hibakusha who
say their children or grandchildren
are weak or have ulcers or cancers.
I know many are very worried
about genetic effects. Without amovement developing, I don’t
expect much progress on this issue.

Coordinator Mitsugu MORIGUCHI:

I’ve been gathering testimonies in the
Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Testimony
Society for 45 years, since 1969.
It’s actually quite difficult to takea testimony. When the hibakusha
gives his or her testimony, it cancause trouble for the family, thechildren, and the grandchildren.
That’s the discrimination you
mentioned, right?
Does it have an effect on
marriage prospects? It can, but
beginning last year, the 70 th ,many more hibakusha are coming
forward to testify. Most feel theyneed to do so while they still can.
However, as with Fukushima, I
suspect the discrimination effectis still inhibiting or affecting these
testimonies.

Coordinator Katsuaki Aoki

In Hiroshima, the Radiation
Effects Research Foundation isinvestigating second-generation
hibakusha. At this point, they havebeen unable to detect a genetic
effect, but they have not proven that
there is no effect, so the research

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 53

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[3] Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings

continues.
More than hibakusha in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Koreansseem to be making an issue of
second-generation effects. I wonder
if we can ask you to say a bit more
about the situation in Korea.

Sim Jintae:
WWII ended in 1945, and it
was not long before the Korean
War broke out. As a result, ourgovernment never properly
investigated the problems ofhibakusha. In 2005, the National
Human Rights Commission of the
Republic of Korea issued a reporton the health of first- and secondgeneration survivors.
In Hapcheon, we have 544
first-generation and 4,400 secondgeneration survivors, and the reportfound major effects. The incidence
of depression was 93 times higher
among them. Of second-generation
hibakusha who have already died,more than half died before theage of 10. About 60% of thosedied soon after birth. They were
never shown to or diagnosed by aphysician, so we don’t know thecauses of their deaths. Exposuredue to a radiation accident isdifferent. I think the whole worldis fearful about the effects ofChernobyl and Fukushima.
In Korea, second-generation
studies are somewhat advanced

compared to Japan’s. I’m in aposition to offer assistance, but weneed more medical surveys andresearch. That is something the US
should do. The US is the country
that developed nuclear weapons,
but Japan should do it as well.
Japan is the country that started
the war that led to those weapons.
They should not be demandingthat you victims provide your own
proof.
Facts need to be recognized
as facts, and the governmentsof Japan and Korea need to do athorough study that includes thesecond and third generations. We
have to support the victims. We
have to convey the facts to future
generations. And we have to work
to make sure no more war crimes
take place.
Coordinator Katsuaki AOKI:Thank you very much. With that,
I will close this session.

Note: Regarding the exposure of people from the Korean Peninsula
A Chugoku Shimbun (Hiroshima’s newspaper) article has provided a
detailed look at the post-war period in Korea and Hapcheon. The article isentitled Hiroshima’s Empty 75 Years.
Sim Jintae and other hibakusha visited the museum and made it
clear that a large number of Korean victims have not been noted in theRegister of Atomic Bomb Victims (the volumes of names kept in thesymbolic stone coffin in the A-bomb Cenotaph in Peace Park). They
conveyed effectively the decades-long ordeal of Koreans not offeredeligibility for health benefits and allowances.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 54

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[ 4 ] Nuclear Power Plant Accidents:
Accidents:
Chernobyl and Fukushima[4] Nuclear Power Plant Accidents: Chernobyl and Fukushima

The monument commemorating the contributions of the “liquidators,” civil and military personnel, who were mobilized to tackle with the consequencesof the 1986 accident on the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant; their work ranged from emergency measures, removal of contaminated wastes,
to construction of the “sarcophagus” to cover the reactor. Many of them were exposed to massive radiation, and not a small number of them died andmany are still suffering from aftereffects and difficulties in life. Petr Pavlicek/IAEA/ CC-BY-SA-2.0. Photographed in 1991.

Coordinators :Ichiro YUASA

Representative, Peace Depot
Profile: Dr Yuasa was born in 1949 in Tokyo. Ph.D. from Tohoku
University. Dr Yuasa specializes in physical oceanography andmarine environmental studies, and worked as a researcher
at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science andTechnology Chugoku Center. Publications include: Radioactive
Contamination of the Sea, River and Lake (2014), Radioactive
Contamination of the Sea (2012), To Question Peace City
Hiroshima (1995).

Hajime SHIRAISHI

video journalist, executive producer of Our PlanetTV
Profile: After working at a broadcasting station, Ms Shiraishi founded
the independent webcast “OurPlanetTV” in 2001 in order to deliver
reports on specific issues ordinarily not covered in mainstream TV
programs. After the 3.11 disasters, she reported on the victims ofthe nuclear accident, and produced the documentaries “49 Critical
Hours: TEPCO Television Conference” and “My Record in Iitate
Village.” The latter was assembled from video footage shot by Kenichi
Hasegawa, a farmer in Iitate Village who recorded the events on hisvideo camera. Publications include Reportage: Children of Chernobyl
after 28 Years: To Learn from Ukraine (2014).

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 55

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[4] Nuclear Power Plant Accidents: Chernobyl and Fukushima

The Legal Struggle
for Compensation[Abstract unavailable now]

Speaker (1):Alexander VELIKIN
Russia: Liquidator

Profile: Mr. Velikin was born in 1953,
Leningrad, USSR. 2001-2013 - vicepresident Union Chernobyl of Russia,
now Chief of organization Union
Chernobyl Leningrad region.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 56

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[4] Nuclear Power Plant Accidents: Chernobyl and Fukushima

The “New Safe Containment” structure to prevent the leaking of radioactive materials. The work was completed in November 2016. The statue ofthe two big hands commemorates the “liquidators” who were mobilized to construct the first “Sarcophagus” now covered and hidden by the new
structure. Clay Gilliland / CC-BY-SA-2.0.

Supporting Chernobyl
Victims

Speaker (2):Anton VDOVCHENKO

Russia: Representative of Radimichi, Chernobyl
Nuclear Accident Victim Support NGO

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 57

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[4] Nuclear Power Plant Accidents: Chernobyl and Fukushima

Summary:
Supporting Activities for the Chernobyl
Accident Victims

The workers walking by the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant No.4 coveredby the “sarcophagus.” (photo by Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC,
Canada/ CC BY-SA 2.0; May, 2016)

Almost 29 years passed since the catastrophe at the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. People living in thecontaminated area still have a lot of different types of
unsolved social problems in addition to health problems.
Since the Government could not deal with all the problems
faced by the victims, a number of non-governmentorganizations were established after the accident. I'm
presenting one of the oldest Chernobyl NGO in Russia;
it's named “Radimichi – for Children of Chernobyl” andwas established in 1987. “Radimichi” provides a numberof social and medical services for the victims living in thecontaminated area.
A summer camp for children was established in 1995,
and about 600 children visit the camp every summer.
A rehabilitation center for handicapped children wasestablished in 1993, and it has about 480 visitors every
year. Also there is a youth center where children can engage
in different activities. Chernobyl information center andChernobyl museum are open for meetings and discussions.
These and other projects of NGO “Radimichi – forChildren of Chernobyl” help to reduce negatives impact ofChernobyl disaster in the Bryansk region and other affectedareas of Russia and Belarus. Our team is ready to share
our experience with other organizations. “Radimichi – forChildren of Chernobyl” is open for cooperation.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 58

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[4] Nuclear Power Plant Accidents: Chernobyl and Fukushima

Our Town Stolen by
Nuclear PowerAn Accusation from Iitate Village

Speaker:

Kenichi HASEGAWA

Dairy farmer in Iitate Village, Fukushima
Mr. Hasegawa played key roles in launching “the Iitate Village Relief
Petition Group: Apologize! Compensate! Return Our Hometown,”
demanding an alternative dispute resolution. He is also a co-representativeof Fukushima Nuclear Accident Victims Network. Mr. Hasegawa has
been conveying their plight actively by speaking out at various meetingsand publishing his own books (in Japanese) such as Our Hometown
Destroyed by the Nuclear Power Plant – The Outcry of a Dairy Farmer
from Iitate Village (2012) and Photo Album: Iitate Village (2013) as well as
appearing in the documentary films co-directed by N. Toyoda.
[Mr. Kenichi Hasegawa passed away because of thyroid cancer on
October 22, 2021, at the age of 68.]

I am a victim of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disasterthat took place four years and eight months ago. My little
village was horribly contaminated so now, all of us villagers
are refugees. Before the disaster, I was living in a fourgeneration family of eight. Now, thanks to the disaster, ourfamily is living in three different places.
We have been told by the national governmentthat our evacuation order will be lifted by March 2017.
But even if we go back, what can we do in a place so
deeply contaminated? We are living with tremendous
uncertainty and anxiety.
From the time of that disaster, I have been using
still and video cameras to record what’s been happening.
From that day on, all sorts of incredible things have been
happening in Fukushima Prefecture and in Japan. I havebeen recording these events because I feel a duty to passthem on to posterity.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 59

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[4] Nuclear Power Plant Accidents: Chernobyl and Fukushima

A distant view of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station：March 2015（Lucas Wirl ／ CC BY-NC 2.0）

Hidden Hot SpotsFirst, this is Iitate, our village. The Daiichi Power Plant
is right here. At the closest point, our village is about 30
kilometers from the plant. My district is in black here. I
am the head of this district. My district is 45 kilometersfrom the plant. That’s not considered close enough, so
we’ve never gotten any benefit at all from that plant. All
we’ve gotten from them is the radiation.
On March 14, Reactor No. 3 exploded. At the time,
our village was covered in snow. This film is from Speedy, anorganization that has been sending us data all along. This data
has been hidden by the government. This data was sent to ourprefecture, Fukushima, but the prefectural government hid it
too. Look carefully. Daiichi is here. Our village is here. The
radiation plume is moving like it’s aiming at Iitate Village.
They didn’t tell us. I’m not exaggerating when I say that wewere exposed to unnecessary levels of radiation because weweren’t told. I believe that.

Evacuation Delayed, Exposure
Increased – The Back Story

As the radiation spread, this is what the prefectureadvised: “Iitate Village residents who are really concerned
about radiation, please evacuate.” But just then, famous
professors from universities all over Japan came toour village. We were gathered into gymnasiums andcommunity centers and told that we were perfectly safe.
“People of Iitate Village, you are not in danger. Please resteasy. Don’t worry.” Hearing this, very few of us evacuated.
In fact, many who had evacuated came back and took up
their normal lives.
But then, other professors started coming in to warn
us that we were in danger. Some said, “Iitate Village ishighly contaminated. You are being exposed. Evacuate
immediately.” Those professors went to our village mayor
and said, “Iitate is too dangerous. The people can’t stayhere. Please evacuate!” They kept warning us, but they
were ignored. “That can’t be true. We’ve got to save ourvillage. We can’t let our village lose its value.” We were
determined and refused to evacuate.
This controversy was still going on when, about amonth after the disaster, the national government cameand said, “Iitate Village is badly contaminated, so we are
implementing a planned evacuation. Please evacuate.” Eventhen, the leadership in our village hesitated. Our hesitation
got us into the nationwide news as “the town resistingevacuation.”

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 60

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[4] Nuclear Power Plant Accidents: Chernobyl and Fukushima

Although municipalities nationwide had prepareda system for accepting radiation refugees, our leadership
refused all offers. They said that we’d only evacuate to aplace no further from Iitate than an hour by car. They also
said that, as soon as the evacuation order was lifted, we’dall come home and begin the recovery. Health concerns
vanished. It was all about return and recovery.

The National Government’s Response
Truly Terrifying
I’m a dairy farmer. I had 50 head of cattle. I was told
to kill them, so I took them to the slaughterhouse andhad them killed. More death was to come. This is afriend of mine (slide), another dairy farmer. He said,“If it weren’t for nuclear power,” then killed himself.
This is the temporary housing where I am living withmy wife and parents (slide). We were always told thata nuclear power accident absolutely could never happen
in Japan. It was always “absolutely.” When Chernobyl
happened 29 years ago, we just figured that was someone
else’s problem. Why would we think about somethingthat “absolutely can’t happen here?” So we never studied
decontamination or did anything to prepare.

But the unthinkable happened. And no one had any
idea how to get rid of the contamination. We becamea “model project.” The Self Defense Force came in todecontaminate us, but they had no idea how to do it. They
were working in the dark. That’s when I understood thatthe national government is a horror show. That’s how I
feel to this day.
Let me show you what I mean. Here is a monitoring
post set up by the Ministry of Education (slide). It was
originally here. But the people who were decontaminatingcame and decontaminated quite thoroughly right aroundhere. Then, they brought in this uncontaminated soil toreplace the contaminated soil. This small area was forcibly
and thoroughly decontaminated. The radiation level
went down, and the monitoring post was moved to thedecontaminated area. All this was forced on us. We could
only watch.
In Iitate Village, the Ministry of Education
has set up 25 or 26 monitoring posts. Every one ofthem shows a lower level of radiation than I measure
for myself. Isn’t that strange? This slide shows themonitoring post set up by the Ministry of Education
indicating 2.531mSv. The dosimeter I’m using, madeby Aloka Medical, shows 3.14mSv. Our measurements
differ by nearly 50%.
The government just wants to make the radiation
look as low as possible. That’s what they’re up to.
However, they do have to decontaminate so they can
restart the nuclear power plants—that’s their main
objective. The nuclear disaster is just an obstacle.
They’ll do anything to make a show of
decontaminating. Look at this. Here, they’re climbing
up on the roof to wipe each roof tile down with paper
towels. This vinyl greenhouse – paper towels. They’re
wiping it down. And here, they’re sweeping the roadwith brooms. Then they pack the debris into flexible bulk
containers.
This is part of a rice field. Five centimeters of soil
has been scraped off and replaced by five centimetersof uncontaminated soil. Then, that part of the field issurveyed and, sure enough, the radiation’s low. But theyturned my town into mountains of contaminated soil
piled up all over the place. What do you think? Isn’t thisa great village now?
So this is a mountain of contaminated soil. And

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 61

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[4] Nuclear Power Plant Accidents: Chernobyl and Fukushimathese mountains were taken from residential areas only.
Decontaminating agricultural land will begin in April thisyear. So in addition to all this, we’ll get more mountainsof contaminated soil from agricultural land. Here within
this yellow line is the area the government is planning todecontaminate. This white area is residential. It’s where themountain of decontaminated soil you saw before was takenfrom. To the mountains of soil from here will be added
the soil from the fields. But the natural, the real mountains
all around us will never be decontaminated. So what do
you think? Should we return to a place like this? We’reextremely worried about doing so.

held meeting after meeting to explain the situation to
the villagers. Last November 4, we went to Tokyo and,as you can see here (slide on p. 98), we demanded thatthey “apologize, compensate, and give us back ourvillage.”In our dialect “maya-eh” is a strong word for “payme back!” We worked that word into our Iitate Village
song and sang it as loudly as we could in front of the
Conflict Resolution Center. We also applied formally forassistance in getting compensation. Sadly, no assistanceand no compensation are coming our way as yet. But
we’re not giving up. We’re in this for the long haul.

Apologize, Compensate, Give us backour Village!

Forced Return in a Year and a Half?

Here’s what I most want to get across. This is thePrefectural Health Management Survey Fukushima
Prefecture put out. Having surveyed outside radiationlevels for four months after the disaster, Fukushima
Prefecture reported the radiation as being extremely
low. But look at this. The highest levels of radiation arefound in Iitate Village. We are far and away the mostcontaminated.
I guess it was to be expected, but it wasn’t until midJuly that most Iitate villagers got evacuated. We’d been
living in this radiation for four whole months. “It’s OK.
It’s perfectly safe.” We were continually told not to worry.
And then I thought, “OK, in Fukushima Prefecturein those four months, how many people were exposed
to more than 5mSv?” I investigated and found that in
all of Fukushima Prefecture, a total of about 920 people
had received 5mSv or more. Of those, 80% were in Iitate
Village. Terrible! Listening to some of the speakers today,a chill ran up my spine. What’s going to happen in my
town? I’m more worried than ever.
The people of my home prefecture, Fukushima,
and the people of my village, Iitate, are being nice andquiet and polite about it. They expect the government tohelp them in some way. They think Tokyo Electric Power
Company will help them in some way. They believe this.
I don’t! And I cannot keep quiet. The government andTEPCO will crush us, for sure.
Convinced they won’t help us, I decided
to present a plea to the Nuclear Power Damage
Compensation Conflict Resolution Center. First, I

Let me help you understand the contamination in Iitate
Village. These are wild mushrooms growing here. We
call them kotake. They are delicious. In 2013, eachkilogram of these was found to carry about 20,000
Becquerels of radiation. By 2014, that figure had risen to
21,000 Becquerels. Over time, the radiation is actually
increasing. Why?
Warabidaira is a village 10 or 15 kilometers closer
to the power plant than Iitate. In 2014, the kotake there
were measured at 18,000 Becquerels. What do you thinkthey measured this year? Kotake taken from the same
spot were found to be 40,000 Becquerels. That’s right.
Me, too. I have no idea.
It all depends on what you measure. The radiation
in some things is decreasing over time, but in somethings, it’s increasing. Still, what we can definitely say
is, our village is contaminated. Yet, we are expected toreturn there in a year and a half. What can we do? How
can we survive? A lot of our villagers are older thanme. How are they going to live there? There will be no
children or young adults to help them. Anxiety for the
future only grows.
I will end with a story about counting fingers.
Since that accident, I have seen two grandchildren born
into our family. At each birth, I looked immediately
to see if the baby had five fingers. Ah, all five, whew!
And it’s not just me. More than 100,000 refugees
from Fukushima Prefecture have that same worry.
We can’t ever permit another disaster like this. I
came to this conference determined to make sure we
don’t. Thank you very much.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 62

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[5] Nuclear Waste Use and Depleted Uranium Shells[ 5 ] Nuclear Waste Use andDepleted Uranium Shells

Because DU rounds are far more penetrative than steel rounds, their destructive power is considered “revolutionary.”(photo: Bernard D. Rostker)

Coordinators:

Coordinators:

Maki SATO

Naomi TOYODA

Profile: Mr. Maki Sato graduated from the
Department of Science and Engineering at
Waseda University, Tokyo. Starting his career ininternational cooperation in 1994, Mr. Sato has
lived in Yemen, Syria and Palestine. Since 2002,
Mr. Sato initiated his involvement in supporting
pediatric cancer patients in Iraq, and foundedin 2004 a network with NGOs and companies,
named Japan-Iraq Medical Network (JIM-NET),
which has been continuing to provide medical
support to Iraqi children. JIM-NET conductsa unique fundraising event every year withchocolates decorated with drawings by those
Iraqi children fighting with cancers. Mr. Sato
served as JIM-NET’s secretary-general till heembarked on new activities as an international
adviser in August 2019.

Profile: MR. Naomi Toyoda started his careerby covering the Middle East and Iraq. His
exhibition, The Human Cost of Uranium
Weapons, was held around the world.
Concentrating on Fukushima after 2011, hehas published many photobooks and codirected two films, The Will: If Only There Were
No Nuclear Power Plant (2013) and Samosely:
The Will – Chapter 6 (2020), which received the2021 Green Image Award.

International Adviser, Team Beco

Photojournalist and documentary film makerThe World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 63

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[5] Nuclear Waste Use and Depleted Uranium Shells

Inevitable
Nuclear Wastes

Speaker:

Hideyuki BAN

Director, Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, Tokyo
Profile: Mr. Ban became aware of the nuclear power
plant problems after the nuclear power plant accident
at the Three Mile Island, U.S.A, in 1979. Since then hehas sought to address the problems by participating
in a citizens’ movement and consulting with union
members of the consumer cooperative at his workplace.
Mr. Ban became a staff member at the Citizens’
Nuclear Information Center in 1990 and has been a corepresentative of the center since 1998. Also as a memberof the government’s deliberative council on nuclear
power, Mr. Ban has been advocating for a comprehensive
phase-out of nuclear power generation.

Whether it is for the production of nuclear
weapons or for the commercial use of nuclear energy,
every operation using nuclear power produces
radioactive waste as its by-product. To take nuclear
power plants for commercial use as an example, eachstep results in producing radioactive waste: fromuranium mining for fuel production, to the use of thesefuels at nuclear power plants, and then handling thesespent fuels, and beyond in final waste disposal.
Slag is radioactive waste resulting from uranium
mining, and waste contaminated by uranium iscollected in the fuel manufacturing process. Primarily
at power plants, nuclear fission produces as much as
100 million times the radiation generated by uranium.
Some isotopes possess an extremely long radiation
lifespan (more than 10 million years). At nuclear
power plants, part of this radiation is released into
the environment. In addition, maintenance work
produces radioactive waste. Spent nuclear fuel is alsoradioactive waste. If spent fuel is reprocessed to utilize
as plutonium, this complicates the problem further.
Ultimately the entire nuclear complex becomes a massof radioactive waste.
Thus, undertaking these procedures inevitably
leads to radiation exposure among workers and local
citizens.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 64

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[5] Nuclear Waste Use and Depleted Uranium Shells

After the Iraq War, lot of scrap metal of the tanks destroyed by DU shells were left abandoned in the Basra city. (photo provided by Kajak Vartanian)

Depleted Uranium:
Military Recycling of Radioactive Waste
Speaker

Jawad Al-ALI

Iraq: consultant physician & oncologist& Kareem A. A. Ahmed

Director, Basra Cancer Prevention Center
Profile: Dr Jawad Al-ALI was born Basrahin 1944. Graduating from the Medical
School at the University of Baghdad in 1967, Dr Ali started his career as an oncology
specialist first at Basrah General Hospital, then transferred to a rural health center.
After working in Ajman, UAE, for one year in 1971, Dr Ali came back to Iraq
to do many medical works including hospital manager until 1979. Furthermore,
after conducting research in U.K., Dr Ali worked as a consultant physician, then ashead of the medical department at Basrah Medical College, supervising students
engaging in higher studies.
In 1989, Dr Ali established a small cancer clinic, which developed to a center fortreatment of cancer in Basrah. In 1990 Dr Ali was nominated as a member of Iraqi
cancer Board (ICB). Dr Ali retired in 2007, but returned to the Ministry of Health in2010 as an expert physician and oncologist. Dr Ali has published many research
papers on cancer and the effects of DU in cooperation with other colleagues. Asan active member of Basrah Cancer Research Group (BCRG), Dr Ali also engaged
very actively in ICBUW’s international campaign to ban DU weapons, and has been
invited to many conferences in Japan and Europe.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 21, 2015

Session 1 65

Reports from the Sites of Nuclear Cycle Damage[5] Nuclear Waste Use and Depleted Uranium ShellsContinuing Contamination
and Damage
Armor-Piercing Round with DU Penetrator
Electric Primer

Propelling Charge

DU Penetrator

Sabot

DU Penetrator[From a AEPI technical report in 1995, Health and Environmental Consequences ofDepleted Uranium Use in the U.S.]

Abstract:

DU (depleted uranium) is the waste product of theenriched Uranium 235, which is used as fuel in the
nuclear reactors. Its half-life is 4.5 billion years. In
addition to its chemical toxicity, it can be harmful tolivings because of the 3 types of radioactive particles,
alpha, beta and gamma, it gives out after combustion.
DU is used to produce high penetration bombs
against armed vehicles. It is used for the first time in the1991 Gulf War on Iraq, then in the Second Gulf War
in 2003, when they were used against military targets
within residency areas as well. After these wars, highlevel of radiation was recorded at in the soil, waters,
plants and trees.
As a res ult of s uc h ir r e s pons ible u s e o fradioactive weapons, we have noticed increased rates
of malignancies, muscle disease (myopathyies), andnervous system disease (neuropathy) in addition to the
new strange phenomena such as familial clustering ofcancers and double or triple cancer.
Risk effects will last for life and cleanup of
contaminated areas is very difficult. We also facedifficulties in providing medical services and social
support for the diseased persons. Although the Iraqi
Ministry of Health is trying tries to provide different
kinds of medical equipment, we are still lagging behindthe nearby countries in health services.

42 sites found to be severely contaminated by depleted uranium

In May 2009 an International Conference was held in Basra, a central city
in southern Iraq; more than 400 people, including doctors, scientists andNGOs, gathered to inquire about the relationship between the increase ofcancer and leukemia and the use of DU bombs in the 1991 Gulf War and2003 Iraq War. (photo by N. Kazashi)

Please click here to go back to the program

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 2

The Science of “Hibaku”

Session 2

The World Nuclear Victims ForumThe Science of “Hibaku” (Radiation Exposure)
Coordinators: Nanao Kamada (Professor Emeritus, Hiroshima University,
Director of Hiroshima Hibakusha Relief Foundation)
Katsumi Furitsu (Asst. Professor, Hyogo College of Medicine, ICBUW,
Chernobyl Hibakusha Relief Kansai)
Presenters: 1) Masao Tomonaga (Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Hospital Director Emeritus) ……67

2) Anatolii Chumak (Ukraine: Vice Director of the Institute of Clinical Radiology of
National Research Center for Radiation Medicine) ……68
3) Shinji Tokonami (Professor, Hirosaki University; Tokonami Research Lab,
Hirosaki University Radiation Medical Research Institute) ……69
4) Masaharu Hoshi (Professor Emeritus at Hiroshima University) ……70

(Commentator) 5) Eisuke Matsui (Director, Gifu Environmental Medicine Research Institute) ……71

Coordinators :Nanao Kamada

Professor Emeritus, Hiroshima University, Director of Hiroshima Hibakusha
Relief Foundation
Profile: Nanao Kamada, M.D., D.M.Sc.
Born 1937. Chairman of Board of Directors of Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Survivors
Relief Foundation. Honorary member of Japan Radiation Research Association.
Director of the Japan chapter of International Physicians for the Prevention of
Nuclear War (IPPNW). Winner of the Chugoku Cultural Award, Takashi Nagai
Peace Award, and the Japan Cancer Society Award. Publications include:
Hiroshima no obaachan (2005) and its English translation, One Day in Hiroshima:
An Oral History (2007).

Katsumi Furitsu

Asst. Professor, Hyogo College of Medicine, Chernobyl Hibakusha Relief
Kansai, ICBUWProfile: Katsumi Furitsu M.D., Ph.D.
Ms K. Furitsu received a Ph.D. in radiation biology and medical genetics from
Osaka University. She is a founding member of “Chernobyl Relief Group of
Kansai” based in Osaka area as well as a steering committee member of the“International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons” (ICBUW). Ms Furitsu regularly
visits Fukushima to give advices to local people to protect them from radiation
and also works in the clinic in Fukushima city. A recipient of the Nuclear-Free
Future Award in 2012.

66

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 22 67

The Science of “Hibaku”

The Science of “Hibaku” (Radiation Exposure)“The Life-Long Health
Effects of Atomic Bombs by
Immediate DNA Damage”
Presentations: (1)Masao TOMONAGA

Professor Emeritus at Nagasaki University
School of Medicine, Director Emeritus at
Nagasaki Atomic Bombing Hospital
Profile: Born on June 5, 1943. At the age of2, Dr. Tomonaga was exposed to radiation
2.7 kilometers away from the hypocenter in
Nagasaki. After graduating from the School of
Medicine, Dr. Tomonaga began his researchon post-radiation leukemia, and spent 45 years
observing leukemia among hibakushas. Basedon his observation of the hibakushas in Nagasaki
almost for half a century, it has become clearthat A-bomb survivors are more likely to develop
myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), sometime
referred to as a second leukemia, as theyage. His results show the life durability of the
carcinogenesis due to radiation exposure fromthe atomic bombing.

Abstract:
Seventy years have passed since the detonation of atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Leukemia, which repeatedly occurred amonghibakusha in the initial stage, provoked fear among all hibakusha and aconverging pattern emerged after 20 years. However, since 1970, solidcancer in every internal organ has gradually increased among hibakusha
and continues to this day. Furthermore, one hibakusha exhibiting symptomsof one or more cancers is not rare. Leukemia is a distinct type called MDS,
which again increases among hibakushas who age. Young hibakushas carrysymptomatic risks of cancer and leukemia for their entire lives. What is thecause? Every internal organ that forms a person’s body develops from thecells. Cells contain DNA, which includes genes. Radiation inflicts injury
on the genes, thus wounding them, and its connection to the symptoms has
become clear. When considering such radiation impacts an important cell
called the stem cell in the nucleus of organ must be considered, this explains
the durability of cancers in a lifetime. The weapon the atomic bomb was
not developed with this aim, but it now appears clear that genes were being
targeted. From this, there is a possibility that cancer can develop among thesecond generation of hibakushas if a similar thing happened to a sperm andan egg. This is henceforth a problem. We doctors recognize that an atomic
bomb is the ultimate in inhumane weapons by the fact that, with genes asa target, the effects of such an atomic bomb’s radiation on the human bodycontinues to generate cancer and leukemia for life.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 2

The Science of “Hibaku”

The nuclear accident at Cherynobyl was classified as the worst “level 7.”(photo by Anatolii Chumak)

Presentations: (2)Anatolii CHUMAK

Ukraine: Vice Director, the Institute of ClinicalRadiology of National Research Center
Profile: Dr. Chumak was born on Feb. 10, 1946.
M.D. in 1984. Professor in Immunology andAllergology (1994). Since 2012, director of theInstitute of Clinical Radiology of National ResearchCenter, Ukraine National Academy of Medical
Sciences. In August-September in 1986, Dr.
Chumak worked in the 30 km zone of Chornobyl
Nuclear Power Plant as a representative of the
Ministry of Public Health of Ukraine responsible
for medical control and medical aid to cleanup workers. Scientific Interests: Immunologicalmechanisms of radiation injury and recovering.
Persistent viral infections in the formation of
immune deficiency and remote radiation effects
realization.

Health-effects :29 Years After Chernobyl
NPP (Nuclear Power Plant)
Accident[Abstract unavailable now]

68The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 2

The Science of “Hibaku”

Presentations: (3)Shinji TOKONAMI

Professor, Tokonami Research Lab, Hirosaki
University Radiation Medical Research InstituteProfile: Dr S. Tokonami specializes in radiation
measurements and measurement procedures. In
1995 Dr. Tokonami earned his Ph.D. in engineeringfrom Waseda University. He has been involved
with radiation research at Waseda University, theNational Institute of Radiological Sciences, andHirosaki University. In addition, he is a member ofseveral International Organizations for Standards’committees regarding radiation measurements.
For dose assessment of evacuees under the initial
exposure situation after the Fukushima nuclear
accident, Dr. Tokonami and his colleagues
conducted I-131 activity measurements in the
thyroid of residents in Namie town and evacuees
from coastal areas during the period from April
11th to 16th 2011, placing a NaI (Tl) scintillation
spectrometer at the neck of examinees.

Radiological Impact on
Evacuees under theInitial Exposure Situation
Caused by the Fukushima
Nuclear Accident
Abstract:
A primary health concern among residents and evacuees in affected areas
immediately after a nuclear accident is the internal exposure of the thyroid
to radioiodine, particularly I-131, and subsequent thyroid cancer risk.
We conducted I-131 activity measurements in the thyroid of residents
in Namie town and evacuees from coastal areas during the period from
April 11th to 16th, placing a NaI (Tl) scintillation spectrometer at the neckof examinees. We found detectable I-131 activity in 39 of the 45 people
evacuated from coastal areas, and in 7 of the 17 residents in Tsushima
District, Namie Town. Thyroid equivalent doses by inhalation ranged fromnone detected (N.D.) to 33 mSv. The median thyroid equivalent dose wasestimated to be 4.2 mSv and 3.5 mSv for children and adults, respectively,
much smaller than the mean thyroid dose in the Chernobyl accident (490mSv in evacuees). The subsequent study revealed a general aspect on the
thyroid dose of more evacuees in Namie town using I-131/Cs-134 activity
ratio. In addition, other scientific activities will be shown as well as our
support activity.

69

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 2

The Science of “Hibaku”

The Lucky Dragon No. 5 irradiated by the hydrogen bomb text conducted by the U.S.
at the Bikini Atoll. On exhibit at “The Lucky Dragon No. 5” Municipal Exhibition Hall at
Yumenoshima, Tokyo. (photo: pixta)

Presentations: (4)Masaharu HOSHI

Professor Emeritus at Hiroshima University
Born in 1948. Emeritus professor of Hiroshima
University. From 1980, Dr. Hoshi was employed at
the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Radiation Institute ofMedical Science. From his retirement through thepresent, Prof. Hoshi has engaged in collaborativeinternational research to measure and evaluate
the radiation doses of radiation exposed persons.
He has continued his research on estimating
the atomic bomb’s radioactivity in Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, radiation dosimetry of exposed
communities in Chernobyl, and on the radiation
exposures and health impacts of nuclear testingon local residents in the Semipalatinsk region.
Recently he has focused his investigations on
the hydrogen bomb tests of the Marshall Islands(1954) and has investigated the radiation exposureof tuna fishermen. He has determined that thesefishermen were exposed to doses higher than
100mSv.

Summary of Radiation
Dosimetry of JapaneseFishermen on Tuna Ships
around the Marshall Islands(Bikini) in 1954
Abstract:
From 1 March to 14 May 1954, hydrogen bomb experiments were
performed in the Marshall island area including Bikini island. There were
6 times of explosions of which energy range were from 110 kt to 15 Mt.
Near this area a Japanese tuna fishing boat called “Lucky Dragon no. 5(No 5 Fukuryu maru)” was in operation, of which name is well known.
However, recently we found there were about 500 tuna ships there andexposed by the radioactive fallout from these explosions. In each ship,
about 20 fishermen were on board, therefore about 10,000 people were
exposed. Recently we made dosimetry study using the methods ofchromosome aberration and ESR tooth enamel measurements and foundthat exposed doses for those fishermen were more than 100mSv.

70

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 2

The Science of “Hibaku”

Children going through screening before taking an examination of thyroid radiation
exposure: March 2011 in Fukushima (photo by Naomi Toyoda)

How to Protect Lifeand Human Rightsfrom Radiation
Presentations: (5)Eisuke MATSUI

Director, Gifu Environmental Medicine
Research Institute.
Born in 1938, Dr. Eisuke Matsui specializes
in radiology, study of respiratory disease andlung cancer. He was assistant professor to theclass of radiology at the Gifu University Schoolof Medicine. At present he is the Director of
the Gifu Research Institute for Environmental
Medicine as well as the director of the Zazendo
Clinic. Dr. Matsui works for the study, researchand recovery of ecological destruction of thenatural environment. On July 6, 2003, he gave
testimony at the International Criminal Tribunal
for Afghanistan (ICTA) about the health effects
caused by internal exposure to radiation. During
October 16-19 of the same year, he gave a lecture
at the World Uranium Weapons Conference in
Hamburg. Since the catastrophe of March 11,
2011, Dr. Matsui has worked to advocate for how
to avoid exposure to radiation, and to protect lives.
He joined the establishment of the “Preserving
Deciduous Milk Teeth Network”(PDMN)this fall.
Dr. Matsui passed away in August, 2020.

Abstract:
Artificial nuclear materials, produced by nuclear fission of 235U and
239Pu, affect living things in many ways and disorganize the ecologicalsystem. When 235U and 239Pu exist in high density (about 100%), thenuclear fission occurs rapidly, as combined to produce a nuclear bomb thatemits dense concntrations of γ-rays and neutron lines. On the other hand,under rather low density (about 4%), nuclear fission occurs slowly. This
reaction has been used for power generation.
The serious problem of nuclear fission is that whether the speedof fission reaction is fast or slow, it produces various artificial nuclear
materials. The nuclear materials will turn into fine particles which will beabsorbed into human body by breathing, eating and drinking. Then they
will emitα-rays, β-rays, and γ-rays to the surrounding organs from thepoint-blank for a long time repeatedly. This is what we call the internal
exposure to radiation.
We should not forget the seriousness of internal exposure to radiation
caused by the artificial nuclear materials when we think about the nuclear
fission of 235U and 239Pu. They affect fetuses, newborn infants, andchildren much more seriously than adults. This is the reason why not only
the measurement of air, soil and ecological system but also the precise
measurement of internal doze of radioactivity is requested.

Please click here to go back to the program

71

The
The World
World Nuclear
Nuclear Victims
Victims Forum,
Forum, Hiroshima
Hiroshima

NovemberNovember 22,
22, 2015
2015

SpecialSession
Session2

The Keynote
Science Lecutureof “Hibaku”
ⅡSpecial Session
The World Nuclear Victims Forum

Coordinator and Lecture Introduction:
Tadashi Sawada (Assistant Secretary General, WNVF)
Keynote Lecture : Dr. Hiroaki Koide
Title: “All Uses of Nuclear Technology Mean Unjust Sacrifice” ……73
(Former Assistant Professor, Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University)

Round table with Dr Koide and International Guests ……79
Kumar Sundaram (India: Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace)
Anatolii Chumak (Ukraine: National Research Center for Radiation Medicine)
Keisaburo Toyonaga (Hiroshima Hibakusha, Association of Citizens for Supporting South
Korean Atomic Bomb Victims)

72

The
TheWorld
WorldNuclear
NuclearVictims
VictimsForum,
Forum,Hiroshima
Hiroshima

NovemberNovember22,
22,20152015

SpecialSpecialSessionSession12

KeynoteKeynote Lecuture
Lecuture

Hiroaki KOIDE

Keynote Lecuture

All Uses of Nuclear Technology
Mean Unjust Sacrifice
Speaker:

Hiroaki KOIDE

Anti-nuclear physicis
Hiroaki KOIDE is a well-known critic of nuclear power. He wasan assistant professor at the Kyoto University Reactor ResearchInstitute (now called the Kyoto University Institute for Integrated
Radiation and Nuclear Science Research) till he retired in March2015. Author of numerous books in Japanese, one of which isavailable in English translation as Rethinking Nuclear Energy:
Autopsy of an Illusion (2014). For an interview in English, see “The
Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Is a Serious Crime” (2016).

73
73

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Special Session
Keynote Lecuture

Hiroaki KOIDE

The unnecessary sacrifices derived from the use of
nuclear technology inevitably fall heaviest on the mostvulnerable. This is happening now, is set to continue, andthis is what I would like to talk about today.
The atomic bomb that fell here in Hiroshima 70
years ago was equivalent in destructive power to 16
thousand tons of TNT. On March 10, before that bomb
was dropped, Tokyo was subjected to an unprecedented
air raid. More than three hundred B29 planes flew anddropped countless bombs. The total explosive tonnage
was 1,800 tons. The single bomb dropped on Hiroshima
carried ten times the destructive power of the entire
Tokyo air raid. That was what exploded over this city.
Like other Japanese cities at the time, Hiroshima
was built mostly of wooden buildings. Streetcars that
ran through its streets, and it was full of people living
ordinary lives. The US knew that when they dropped thebomb. In fact, prior to the bombing, they made sure tokeep Hiroshima unharmed. They wanted an unmuddied
experiment that clearly showed what damage the atomic
bomb would do.
We have only five photographs taken in Hiroshimaon the day the bomb was dropped. Why? Because
the scenes were so gruesome, even a professional
photographer was unable to snap the shutter. Crowds ofhorribly injured victims fled the city. Miyuki Bridge was
2.5 to 3 kilometers toward the sea from the hypocenter.
The injured to the south of downtown had to crossthat bridge to escape the flames. Do you see the young
woman in the center of this photo? Her clothes areburned to rags, and she’s carrying something black. We
One of the only five pictures
taken on August 6.

have eyewitness testimony informing us that she wasa young mother. She was running around hysterically,
begging for help, and screaming at her baby, “Wake up.
Wake up, please!”
Three days after Hiroshima, another atomic bomb
was dropped on Nagasaki. This bomb was even more
powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. It was equivalent to
21 thousand tons of TNT. And of course, people were
living in Nagasaki as well. By the end of December,
those bombs in those two cities had killed more than
200,000 people.

Atmospheric Nuclear Testing:
10,000 times the fallout from Hiroshima
The atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
detonated in the air. Japan has certainly been exposed tonuclear weapons. But is Japan the only such country?
For many years, Japan has routinely made this claim,
but is it true?
On February 28,1854, a hydrogen bomb
exploded over the Bikini Atoll. It was the American
test codenamed Bravo. This enormous explosion was

74

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Special Session
Keynote Lecuture

Hiroaki KOIDEa thousand times more powerful than the Hiroshima
bomb, and the fallout exposed Marshall Islanders aswell as hundreds of ships, including the Lucky Dragon
No. 5, one of many Japanese tuna boats fishing in the
area.
Nuclear weapons exploded in the skies over
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but that was far from theend of it. Those were just the beginning of nuclear
testing. The US alone conducted over 300 tests in theatmosphere. If we add its underground tests, the US
has conducted over 1,000 tests on this planet. If we add
tests by Russia, England and France, that figure rises toover 2,000. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were only two of
2,000.
How much nuclear fission byproduct was scatteredaround by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Using cesium 137 for comparison is relatively easy andaccurate, so let’s use cesium 137 as our gauge.
The cesium scattered by the Hiroshimabomb amounted to about 0.089 peta-Becquerels.
Atmospheric testing released about 964 petaBecquerels. That’s more than 10,000 times as muchcesium 137 as the Hiroshima bomb dispersed, andthese fission products have spread all over the globe.
Yes, Japan was exposed—along with the wholeworld. In areas around nuclear test sites, residents
have received massive doses.
In his address to the UN in 1953, US President
Eisenhower introduced the idea of “atoms for peace.”
He told the world that nuclear power could be used forpeaceful purposes. Ever since, the world has generally
believed in the peaceful use of nuclear power. But
what has the “peaceful use” of nuclear power actuallymeant? Uranium is extracted from mines. It’s enrichedand processed into fuel that then undergoes fission in
nuclear power plants.
After using the uranium in their reactors, the US,
Russia, England, France and China have all tried toreprocess that spent fuel to extract the plutonium. Japan
has attempted to do so as well. In all cases, at the end of
the cycle, we are left with nuclear waste. At every stageof the cycle, even when the power plant is operating
normally, workers are exposed to radiation, theenvironment is contaminated, and the local community
is exposed. When an accident happens, the result iscatastrophe.

What contaminates the environment most during
normal operation? The mining releases a great dealof contamination, but reprocessing plants generate
enormous amounts as well.

England’s Waste Dumped in the Irish
Windscale, England, is now known for its Sellafield
Recycling Plant. Do you have any idea how much
Cesium 137 this plant has released into the Irish Sea?
Please take a look at this data.
Since beginning operations in the 1950s, theSellafield plant in Windscale has been releasing Cesium
137 directly into the sea. In time, spent fuel fromcommercial nuclear power plants around the world
began arriving in Windscale for reprocessing. Mostof that spent fuel is from Japan. All of this has led tomassive amounts of cesium flowing into the Irish Sea.
Near the bottom of this graph is a dotted line. This
represents the amount of cesium 137 released by theHiroshima bomb. Every year, dozens of times morecesium is released through what is deemed “normal
operations” at this plant built for the “peaceful use” ofnuclear power.

Here we have a list of the most significant
contamination incidents that have occurred to date(photo on p. 165). As stated previously, the Hiroshimabomb released 0.089 peta-Becquerels of cesium 137.
Atmospheric testing released about 10,000 times thatamount, contaminating the entire globe. The Chernobyl
disaster, according to Russia’s official estimate, released
89 peta-Becquerels. The Windscale reprocessing
plant has released 41 peta-Becquerels during normal
operations, and, according to the official figure reported

75

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Special Session

Keynote Lecuture

Hiroaki KOIDE

by the Japanese government, the Fukushima disasterreleased 15 peta-Becquerels into the atmosphere.
I have serious doubts that the figure for Fukushima
is accurate. Researchers in various countries have comeup with figures that are two and three times higher.
Moreover, this figure only represents release into theatmosphere. Even today, radiation is continually flowing
into the sea.

Japan is located in the North Temperate Zone.
This zone is characterized by prevailing westerly
winds, which sometimes blow extremely hard. So, what
happened to the fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear Power Plant? It was carried off to the east by thewesterlies. Contaminating the Pacific Ocean on the way,it eventually contaminated the west coasts of the US andCanada. A nuclear accident takes place in Japan, andareas on the other side of the Pacific are contaminated.
That is what “nuclear power disaster” means.

Not “decontamination” ( 除染 ; josen),just “moving contamination” ( 移染 ;eesen)The photo above was taken at the time of the
Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant disaster. In theforeground is the turbine building. Behind that are thereactor buildings. From right to left, they are Reactor
1, Reactor 2, etc. Reactors 1 to 3 were in operation on
March 11, 2011. Shaken by the earthquake, flooded by
the tsunami, all three of those reactors melted down.
Reactor 4 had been shut down for routine maintenance,
so it was not operating. No fuel was in the reactor, andyet, for some reason, a large explosion reduced it toruins. Reactors 1 to 3 melted down and spewed out
enormous amounts of radioactive material.

The disaster severely contaminated Japan. The Japanese
government published a map of contaminated areas.
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is in Fukushima
Prefecture, which is in northeast Japan on the Pacific
Coast. When the radioactive substances were released
into the air, nearly all blew toward the Pacific, but therest contaminated a huge part of our main island.
In some areas, contamination was severe. Over 100
thousand people had to flee their irradiated homes, neverto return. Contamination is said to be low in western
Gunma Prefecture, Aizu in Fukushima Prefecture,northern Miyagi Prefecture, and a part of Iwate
Prefecture. But even these areas, if Japanese law were
followed to the letter, would be considered contaminated.
They should be radiation control areas.
Including these “low-contamination” areas,
approximately 14,000 square kilometers should legally
be designated radiation control areas. In other words,
Japan should have declared these areas unsafe for
habitation. However, Japan’s official stance is, “We can’t
afford it, so go ahead and have folks live there.” Overa million people have been abandoned to live out theirlives in radiation control areas.
People naturally want to keep their homes
clean, so these “radiation control areas” are being
decontaminated. “Decontamination” in Japanese is
除染 (josen). These characters literally mean “remove
contamination.” However, the contamination inthis case is radioactive material, and the radiation
can’t be “removed.” The fact is, removing thiscontamination is impossible. All we can actually do ismove it to somewhere else. I call that 移 (ee or move)76

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Special Session
Keynote Lecuture

Hiroaki KOIDE

染 (sen or contamination), so 移 染 (eesen) or “movecontamination.”
In areas where people are actually living, we takethe contaminated material, put it into bags, and pile thosebags up somewhere else. At this point, Japan has over 10
million bags filled with contaminated material. These bags
are left in piles. Many are torn, allowing the contamination
to flow out when it rains. And we have no idea what to doabout this.

They say radiation cannot be perceived
by the five senses.

This graph is by Misato Yuzuki. (upper right)
The red particles represent radioactive substances. I
go to Fukushima now and then, but unfortunately, I,
too, am unable to perceive radiation. And the peopleof Fukushima are likewise unable to perceive it.
Nevertheless, Fukushima is definitely contaminated.
The Japanese government map shows areas thatare clearly contaminated at or above the level thatmakes them radiation control areas. And yet, people,
including children, are living in those areas, abandoned
to continual exposure. That is happening right now.
[Making Radiation Visible]

According to Japan’s report to the IAEA (International
Atomic Energy Agency), the radioactive substances
spewed into the atmosphere from the Fukushima Daiichi
disaster amounted to 1.5 x 1016 Becquerels. My friend,
the late Nobuhiro Suwano, professor at the Women’s
Junior College of Kanazawa Seiryo University, spent ahuge amount of time and effort calculating the amountof cesium 137 that fell on Japanese land. What he foundwas 2.4 x 1015 Becquerels. If the Japanese government’s
official figures are accurate, only 16% of the Fukushima
Daiichi fallout fell on Japanese land. That means 84%
went to the Pacific and beyond.

A mere 750 grams
I wonder if you can get any feel at all for what it means
to say the radiation was 1.5 x 1016 Becquerels or 2.4
x 1015 Becquerels. I’ve been studying radiation for
decades, but I still have no real comprehension of figureslike this. So let’s take the Becquerels and convert them toweight.
By weight, the total cesium 137 released by
Fukushima Daiichi was 4.7 kilograms. The cesium 137
that turned much of the Tohoku area and some of the
Kanto area into radiation control areas was a mere 750
grams. That is the total weight that fell into our land
environment, but that was enough to make large areas
uninhabitable. We are fighting such opponents.
They say radiation can’t be perceived, but that’s
because any radiation strong enough to be perceived
by any of our five human senses would soon kill thehuman doing the perceiving. Hence, radiation can’t
be perceived. The point here is, an unimaginably tiny
volume of material has spread around a monstrous
danger.

Japan still under the “Emergencey
Declaration.”
On March 11, 2011, when the Fukushima Daiichi
disaster took place, a nuclear power emergency was
declared. Japan is supposed to be a nation of laws,
but it claims that, due to the ongoing emergency, it
is OK not to observe the law. It declares acceptable
the fact that people are living in areas that should,
by law, be radiation control areas. And yet, despite
continuing to use the emergency as an excuse formaking light of the law, by the end of 2011, Prime
Minister Yoshihiko Noda declared that the accident
had settled down ( 事 故 収 束 宣 言 ). In 2013, Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe went to Buenos Aires to invite
the Olympics to Japan. There, he told the world the
big lie, that the nuclear disaster was “under control.”The truth is, four and a half years later,
the nuclear power emergency continues. Japanremains in a state of emergency. While the Japanese

77

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Special Session
Keynote Lecuture

Hiroaki KOIDE

government claims that the emergency makes
obeying the law impossible, the Abe administration,prioritizing the economy and the Olympics, declares
it “under control.” Japan has gone insane.

Three core technologies of nuclear
weapons
The world is governed, to some extent, by anorganization called the United Nations. The UN was
created and is controlled by dozens of countries thatfought and defeated Japan in WWII. The permanent
members of the UN Security Council are the US, Russia,
England, France, and China. Why are those countries
permanent members? Because they are the acceptednuclear-weapon states.
Uranium enrichment, controlled nuclear reaction,and reprocessing—all nuclear-armed nations havethese three technologies. To prevent other countries
from obtaining these technologies, they created theNPT (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) and the IAEA.
Remaining outside the NPT are India, Pakistan, Israel
and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North
Korea). All possess or might possess nuclear weapons,so they have the core technologies. Only one country has
all three core technologies while claiming not to possess
nuclear weapons. Japan. While talking continually
about “peaceful use,” Japan has walked the path towardpossession of nuclear weapons. The world clearlyrecognizes Japan as a latent nuclear-armed state.

Technology itself is neither military
nor peaceful.
Most Japanese have opposed nuclear weapons and havesought their abolition. And what has their government
been saying? The military use of nuclear power is bad, butpeaceful use is good. With this belief, Japan has developed
nuclear power, and many Japanese have cooperated indoing so. But technology itself is neither military nor
nonmilitary. Technology developed for peaceful use
can, whenever needed, be used militarily. This reality isinherent in technology, and the Japanese government iswell aware of that potential. While telling the people thatJapan’s nuclear power is for peaceful use only, the industry
has been steadily proceeding toward nuclear weapons
possession. The Japanese people have been deceived.
Nuclear power should never be used at all. The
military-versus-peaceful distinction is irrelevant.
Nuclear power for peaceful use has caused millions
to suffer, and that suffering continues to this day.
Military use is obviously unacceptable, so nuclear
power must be abolished. Japan should stop thinkingof itself as the only nation to suffer from nuclear
weapons. We have to recognize that the entire
world has been irradiated, and we are all hibakusha(exposed). We need to join hands with friends aroundthe world to create a campaign with the declared
goal of abolishing both military and peaceful uses ofnuclear power.

78

The
The World
World Nuclear
Nuclear Victims
Victims Forum,
Forum, Hiroshima
Hiroshima

NovemberNovember 22,
22, 2015
2015

Special Session

Round table with Dr Koide and International
Keynote Lecuture
GuestsRound table with Dr Koide andInternational Guests“Broken Chair,” a monumental sculpture in wood, installed across the street from the
Palace of the Nations in Geneva. It symbolizes opposition to landmines and cluster
bombs. The realization of the Anti-Landmines Treaty in 1997 gave strong inspiration
to the launching of the ICAN campaign. (photo by Arenamontanus: CC BY-NC 2.0)

Coordinator:

Tadashi SAWADA

Vice Secretary-General, The World Nuclear Victims Forum
Secretary-General, Hiroshima Branch, Japan Congress of
Journalist

79The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Special Session

Round table with Dr Koide and International Guests

Global Solidarity
Needed for our Nuclear Abolition
Movements

Discussants:

Kumar Sundaram

Anatolii Chumak

Keisaburo Toyonaga

Profile: Mr. Kumar Sundaram is a researcher
and campaigner associated with the
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament andPeace (CNDP), a network of more than
200 groups and hundreds of individuals
formed after India's nuclear test in
1998. Mr. Sundaram has been active in
mobilizing solidarity for grassroots antinuclear struggles in India as well asbuilding internationals, especially after
Fukushima. He runs a website called
DiaNuke.org, which is an online resource
page for nuclear-related developments anddiscussions.

Profile: Dr. Chumak was born on Feb. 10,
1946. M.D. in 1984. Professor in Immunology
and Allergology (1994). Since 2012, directorof the Institute of Clinical Radiology of
National Research Center, Ukraine National
Academy of Medical Sciences. In AugustSeptember in 1986, Dr. Chumak worked inthe 30 km zone of Chornobyl Nuclear Power
Plant as a representative of the Ministry of
Public Health of Ukraine responsible for
medical control and medical aid to clean-up
workers. Scientific Interests: Immunologicalmechanisms of radiation injury andrecovering. Persistent viral infections in theformation of immune deficiency and remoteradiation effects realization.

Profile: Mr. Toyonaga was born in Yokohama
City near Tokyo in 1936, and moved toHiroshima, his parents’ birthplace in 1939. On
August 7 and 8, 1945, after the bombing, hewent into the city of Hiroshima to look for his
mother and brother, and became exposed
to radiation. After graduating from Hiroshima
University in 1961, Mr. Toyonaga began towork as teacher of Japanese (language andliterature) at the private Hiroshima Denki
High School (currently known as Hiroshima
Kokusaigakuin High School). He has been
supporting A-bomb victims living outside
Japan, mostly in Korea. He is Chief of theHiroshima branch of “Citizens Supporting
A-bomb Victims in Korea.” In 1984 heformed “Hiroshima o Kataru-kai [Group:
Let’s talk about Hiroshima],” to share their
A-bomb experiences with the students
visiting Hiroshima for school trips and otherpurposes. This group dissolved in 2001, but
he still continues its activities with some of its
former members even today.

India: Coalition for Nuclear Disarmamentand Peace (Researcher and Campaigner)

Ukraine: Vice Director, the Institute ofClinical Radiology of National ResearchCenterHibakusha of Hiroshima, Association of
Citizens for Supporting South Korean
Atomic Bomb Victims

Please click here to go back to the program80The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 3

Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons and Depleted Uranium Weapons

Session 3

The World Nuclear Victims Forum

Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons andDepleted Uranium Weapons
Coordinators

Presenters:		

: Osamu Shinohara (Professor at Hiroshima Jyogakuin University): Keiko Nakamura (Assoc. Professor, Research Center for Nuclear WeaponsAbolition (RECNA), Nagasaki University)
1) Mary Dickson (Downwinders, U.S. , Director of Creative Service)2) Akira Kawasaki (Executive Committee Member,
Peace Boat; ICAN Steering Committee) ……82
3) Tilman Ruff (Co-President of IPPNW and founding Chair of ICAN )4) Kenichi Okubo (International Anti-Nuclear Campaign) ……86

5) Manfred Mohr (lawyer, IALANA-Germany, ICBUW) ……88

Coordinators :Coordinators :Osamu SHINOHARA

Keiko NAKAMURA

Profile: Mr. Shinohara was born in downtown
Tokyo in 1953. After obtaining a masters
degree from the faculty of commerce at Meiji
University, Tokyo, he engaged in various
jobs including a secretary at YMCA. Then,
Mr. Shinohara joined the staff of Hiroshima
Jogakuin University, and was Professor in the
Liberal Arts Faculty (international education).

Profile: Ms Nakamura is Associate Professor
at the Research Center for Nuclear WeaponsAbolition (RECNA), Nagasaki University. She
worked as secretary-general of “Peace Depot,a ”Yokohama-based NPO, until she moving toNagasaki to join the foundation of RECNA in
2012. She has been involved very actively inanti-nuclear issues.

Professor, Hiroshima Jogakuin University

Associate Professor, RECNA, Nagasaki
University

81

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 3

Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons and Depleted Uranium Weapons

The Japanese Government
Opposes the Ban Treaty
Questioning the “Mediator” Excuse
Speaker

Akira KAWASAKIInternational Steering Group member,
ICAN
Profile: Co-director of the Tokyo-based
NGO Peace Boat. Since 2008 Akira
KAWASAKI coordinates “Global Voyage
for a Nuclear-Free World: Peace Boat
Hibakusha Project” bringing many
hibakusha around the world to raise
public awareness of nuclear dangers.
After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, heplayed central roles in organizing two
Global Conferences for a Nuclear-PowerFree World in 2012. Having authoredmany books on the nuclear issues,
he frequently contributes to Japanesenewspapers and journals on peace anddisarmament.

82

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 3

Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons and Depleted Uranium Weapons

Hibakusha Testimony Made theConference
Let me show you some photos. This summer, a group of
hibakusha and youths traveled the world together to provide
eyewitness testimony. In this eighth year of the program,
we visited a number of countries through collaboration with
Mayors for Peace. I travel with the hibakusha myself forthis program and always learn a lot. The burden of travelincreases with their advancing age, of course, but they are
absolutely and wonderfully determined to convey theirknowledge to the young.
Giving testimony is never easy for the hibakusha.
They have to relive the pain and deal with all sorts ofinternal conflict. In a way, many of them feel forced. Thatis, they find themselves speaking over their own objections.
A part of this equation is their average age, which is
now over 80. How long can they continue traveling forthese programs? Those of us who are younger and havebeen touched by them are called to inherit and transmit
in concrete form their feelings and experiences of thebombings.
This photo shows Canadian resident and Hiroshima
survivor Setsuko Thurlow opening the Mexico
conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear
weapons. It also highlights the extent to which hibakusha
testimony was a crucial factor in helping the international
community muster the courage to ban nuclear weapons.
I was at the Mexico conference. The opening
ceremony gave over an hour to hibakusha testimony
or “survivor messages.” I saw for myself the way
these messages set the tone for the whole conference.
I watched as the diplomats, after listening to thehibakusha, made statement after courageous statement
supporting the idea that “we must prohibit nuclear
weapons.”
In summarizing that session, the Mexican foreign
minister said, “Seventy years after the bombings ofHiroshima and Nagasaki, it is only right that we begin
the process of nuclear weapon abolition.” That was
February last year.

The Japanese Government and the
Hibakusha Remain Far Apart
Has the process of banning nuclear weapons begun?

Certainly, we’re approaching the starting point. As we’veheard here today, nuclear weapons remain the only weaponsof mass destruction the international community has not yet
banned. But the final document from the third conference
on the humanitarian impact, which was held in Vienna,is entitled Humanitarian Pledge. This pledge fills a gap
in international law. It stigmatizes nuclear weapons with
the intent of banning and eliminating them. So far, 121
countries have supported it, but Japan has yet to support or
accede to the Humanitarian Pledge.
When the first joint statement on the humanitarian
impact of nuclear weapons was issued in 2012, NGO
representatives visited the Japanese government to ask
their intent. Their answer was, “Nuclear weapons arecertainly inhumane. They contravene humanitarianism,
but we cannot say they violate humanitarian law.” Inother words, nuclear weapons are inhumane but do not
violate humanitarian law.
The reasoning here derives from Japan’s reliance on
US nuclear deterrence. The logic is, if the US uses nuclear
weapons, the use of nuclear weapons was necessary. Even
the admission that such use would have a devastating
humanitarian impact does not allow us to say, “Don’t use
them.” The government insists that such a message would
threaten Japan’s national security. This is nothing new. This
has always been Japan’s post-war nuclear policy.
However, this policy is miles away from what
Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors feel, and the people ofJapan as well. So much so that Foreign Minister Kishida,a Hiroshima native, decided in 2013 to express support
for the series of statements on humanitarian impact. Whenhe finally signed, he asserted that the statement had been
amended. How was it amended? His own stance wasamended to explain that the humanitarian impact approach
to abolishing nuclear weapons was one of many acceptableapproaches. The Japanese government’s interpretation was,
“We signed the statement to recognize the inhumanity of
nuclear weapons, but that does not mean we support a bantreaty.” This stance remains consistent to this day.
The Japanese government does not support the
Humanitarian Pledge that emerged from the conference
last year in Vienna. Why? Kishida has said that supporting
the Pledge would lead directly to supporting the ban treaty,
which Japan cannot do.

83

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 3

Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons and Depleted Uranium WeaponsåPlease take a moment to think about this. This
resolution simply raised the ethical grounds for abolishing
nuclear weapons and proposed that all nations work
toward prohibiting those weapons. It did not call for
an immediate start to negotiations. It did not offer any
deadline by which a treaty should be set forth. It merely
proposed a general direction. Yet, Japan refused to support
even this ultimate goal.
This photo was taken in October this year at the First
Committee Meeting of the UN General Assembly in New
York, where critical resolutions were adopted. According
to one diplomat, there has never been such a “wild” First
Committee Meeting. Many resolutions were proposed, but
the resolution regarding the humanitarian impact of nuclear
weapons, which was conceived in line with the series ofstatements Kishida signed, was set forth this year for the
first time. It received 136 votes for, 18 against, with 21
abstentions.
Japan voted in favor. The nuclear weapon states voted
against or abstained. Indicated here in green are the nuclear
umbrella states like Japan. Some voted against, others
abstained. However, Japan did support the general idea thatthe use of nuclear weapons would lead to a humanitariancatastrophe.
On the other hand, when the Humanitarian Pledge
was submitted as a resolution, it received support from 121
countries. When Austria submitted its resolution alone, theresponse was a bit slow, but when the UN working group
first set it forth, the result was 128 in favor, 29 against, with
18 abstentions. Japan abstained; the nuclear weapon states
voted against or abstained.
The NATO countries, the European countries under
the US nuclear umbrella, were mostly opposed. Norway
abstained. The key point here is that Japan neither opposed
nor supported the idea of working to prohibit nuclear
weapons. Buy why? Among the various resolutions
submitted this year, a new one approached the matter on
ethical grounds. South Africa submitted a resolution saying,“Nuclear weapons must be eliminated based on ethicalconsiderations.” The vote was 124 in favor, 35 opposed,with 15 abstaining. Here again, Japan abstained. In general,
the outcome was similar to previous humanitarian impact
resolutions.

Doubts about Japan’s Mediating Role
Every year since 1994, Japan has submitted a resolutionof its own. It’s called Japan’s Resolution. Japan claims
that, since its resolution is supported by both nuclear
weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states, it
represents an effective approach. Japan speaks with pride
about its “extremely effective approach.” It is certainly
effective in receiving support: 170 countries regularly
sign their approval. From my point of view, however,the broad support it receives derives from its lack ofmeaning. Still, Japan has succeeded in obtaining a certain
level of support.
This year, support for Japan’s resolution began tofalter. Support fell to 156 countries, with the US, England,and France, who formerly supported it, now abstaining. Nota single nuclear power supported it. This outcome upset
Japan.
The nuclear weapon states had long been willing tosupport the resolution when it said that nuclear weapons
are inhumane but cannot immediately be banned.
However, given the new dynamics and the prospect of
nuclear weapons actually being banned because of their
humanitarian impact or on ethical grounds, the nuclear
weapon states were quick to reject any mention ofhumanitarian impact. They refused to support anythingthat even hinted at a ban. As toothless as Japan’s
resolution continued to be, it could not gain the supportof the nuclear-weapon-states. Japan was placed in theposition of choosing a side. Would they go with thenuclear weapon states? Or would they go with Austria,
Mexico and others who were seriously working to ban
nuclear weapons? In the end, Japan refused to choose aside and its mediating resolution was not really supported
by anyone.
Under this pressure, the Japanese government
consistently claims to be “bridging the gap” between the84

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 3

Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons and Depleted Uranium Weapons

nuclear and the non-nuclear weapon states. How true isthis? We need to be quite skeptical here. Is Japan reallya third party standing neutrally between the nuclear andnon-nuclear states?
Japan has suffered an attack with nuclear weapons.
Opinions differ on its claim to be the only one, but it
is certainly the only country that has actually suffereda nuclear bombing in war. For this victim of nuclear
weapons to say, “The nuclear weapon states say this,the non-nuclear states say that, and we stand between
them,” is ridiculous. When even states that have never
suffered a nuclear attack push for genuine progress
toward a nuclear-weapon-free world, Japan must take anunequivocal stand.

Non-nuclear States Creating a
Prohibition Norm
The action to watch now is the resolution that, if
submitted and approved, would establish a UN working
group under the UN General Assembly next year. Japanis abstaining again, but the proposed working groupwould study concrete legal measures, legal norms
and regulations leading to a nuclear free world. The
resolution is to be set forth during the General Assemblythat will take place for 15 days in Geneva. And thedecision will not need to be unanimous.
In the vote on this working group, Japan abstained.
The working group will discuss in concrete terms andput into writing some practical, legal measures involvedin the prohibition of nuclear weapons. We can say withassurance that the mere establishment of this working
group is a giant diplomatic step toward a ban treaty.
Whether Japan will engage with this effort is anextremely important issue. I won’t go into the details,
but as Dr. Tilman mentioned earlier, this ban treaty could
take any of several forms. Among the various steps
toward a nuclear-weapon-free world, the process leading
to the first step (banning) and the process leading to thelast step (elimination) can differ in a number of ways.
However, if we are content to create a prohibition norm,
the non-nuclear states can do so without the nuclearweapon states.
In this context, the Japanese government talks about“piling up blocks.” According to their official statement,
the final pile of blocks will probably require something

like a treaty banning nuclear weapons. But if this is what
they really want, why resist establishing the working
group? Why would they not support such discussions
and insist on taking part?
The First Committee passed the resolution, and it
will move to the General Assembly by the middle of next
month. Just as we persuaded Japan to support the seriesof humanitarian impact statements they initially rejected,
we need to demand that the Japanese government
participate in discussions for a nuclear weapon ban
treaty.
This is the last slide (upper right photo). Dr. Tilman
presented earlier a report regarding the financing ofcorporations involved in producing nuclear weapons.
That report lists eight Japanese companies. Thesefigures are in millions of US dollars, and you can seethat Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is the number one nuclear
investor at $7.58 billion. This is a private survey, so theactual figure could be much higher. In any case, we needto carefully follow the money as it relates to the Japanese
government’s support for nuclear weapons, which theyknow full well are inhumane.
Thank you very much.

85

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 3 86

Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons and Depleted Uranium Weapons

The “Operation Crossroads”: A pair of nuclear tests conducted by the U. S. at the Bikini Atoll in the Marshal Islands in 1946.
(photo provided by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. CC BY-NC 2.0)

Speaker

Kenichi OKUBO

Lawyer, Secretary-General of JALANA
Profile: Mr. Okubo graduated from the Departmentof Law at Tohoku University and worked, among
others, in the human rights bureau at the Ministry ofJustice. Mr. Okubo served as secretary-general of
the Japan Association of Lawyers against Nuclear
Arms (JALANA) for 20 years till he assumed its
presidency in 2020. He served as amicus curiae(legal assistant) at The International Peoples'
Tribunal on the Dropping of Atomic Bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Hiroshima, 2006-2007).
Publication (in Japanese) include: Nuclear Ageand the Article 9 of Japanese Constitution (2019)
and Constitution Renaissance: Seeking Bread,
Liberty and Peace (1988).

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 3

Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons and Depleted Uranium Weapons

Nuclear Powers Are Not
Making Efforts toward
Abolishing Nuclear Weapons:
The Marshal Islands Filed a Suit at the International
Court of Justice
To our great disappointment, however, the ICJ
dismissed eventually dismissed the cases, in October
2016, on the grounds that, legally speaking, “nodispute” existed between the Marshall Islands and thenuclear powers in question, specifically, the United
Kingdom, India and Pakistan.
For a critical review of the ICJ’s decision, seean online article, “No Luck for Marshall Islands in
Nuclear Disarmament Case Against India, Pakistan, and
UK: While the ICJ ruled that it didn’t have jurisdiction
to proceed, the case isn’t a complete loss for nuclear
disarmament,” by Ankit Panda, The Diplomat, Oct. 6, 2016;
https://thediplomat.com/2016/10/no-luck-formarshall-islands-in-nuclear-disarmament-caseagainst-india-pakistan-and-uk/[Editor’s note:
Mr. Kenichi Ohkubo emphasized the historic
importance of the legal suit initiated at the ICJ(International Court of Justice) by the Republic of
the Marshall Islands in 2014. The Marshall Islands
claimed that the nuclear weapons states were breaching
the obligations, stipulated by Article VI of the Treaty
on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), “topursue negotiations in good faith on effective measuresrelating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an earlydate and to nuclear disarmament.”

The ICJ’s “OVERVIEW OF THE CASE: theObligations concerning Negotiations relating to
Cessation of the Nuclear Arms Race and to Nuclear
Disarmament (Marshall Islands v. United Kingdom)”
can be found at the following site:
https://www.icj-cij.org/en/case/160 ]87

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 3

Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons and Depleted Uranium Weapons

Various types of DU (depleted uranium) bombs: 120 millimeter shells as tank equipment to 30 millimeter shells to be
shot from attack airplanes; it is used also for tank armor. (photo: Bernard Rostker)

Speaker

Manfred MohrInternational Lawyer, IALANA Germany
Manfred Mohr is a specialist in international law. Graduating from
Humboldt University Berlin, he has been worked as a researcher
and lecturer. He joined the German Red Cross specializing in IHL(Int. Humanitarian Law) dissemination work as well as EU social
policy. Mr. Mohr is co-founder of IALANA (Int. Association of
Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms) and of ICBUW (Int. Coalition to Ban
Uranium Weapons) , for which he serves now as a spokesperson.
He is also member of the German Association of International
Law and of the German Association of IHL. In 2012, he joined the
project and networking on “Toxic Remnants of War” (TRW).

Dear colleagues, dear friends,
May I, first of all, introduce myself a little bit moreas I am representing three different organizations– all linked by a common goal: to abolish war andits consequences, in particular what regards most
crude and brutal forms.
I am founding and board member of the Int.
Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms –IALANA, chairman, or speaker, of the Int. Coalition
to Ban Uranium Weapons (in Germany), - ICBUW– and, again, founding member of the Toxic
Remnants of War Network (TRWN). With all thesefunctions and experience as a background, I would
like to present some ideas to you, in relation to
overlapping issues in fighting nuclear and uranium(or DU) weapons, seen from the perspective of aninternational lawyer, but also a campaigner. It all
centers around:88The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 3

Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons and Depleted Uranium Weapons

Environmental Destruction
Through War----The Cases of Nuclear and Uranium Weapons(2) The Legal Dimension(s)(1) Environmental Destruction inTimes of War
There is an ongoing debate on the issue, for some years
already. What seems to be needed now, is to arrive atsome kind of clarifications, concretization and regulation.
The discussion takes place within various institutions, orsettings, being linked to various activities. Just to name afew: the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP),
the Red Cross (and the Int. Committee of the Red Cross,
ICRC, in particular), the Int. Law Commission (ILC)…
When it comes to this dimension of war or
conflict, there is a risk of misunderstanding occurring,
just in relation to the peace movement: It is assumed,or presumed, that what we are aiming at, would be just“greening the war” – thus making it acceptable. Of
course, the contrary being true: if raising the issue ofenvironmental destruction through war, or military action,
one is putting war itself in question as it will always
involve damaging the environment. Or, in other words,
placing environmental constraints upon warfare
would make waging wars more or less impossible.
This leads us to…

There, and especially with the experience of dealing
with uranium, or DU weaponry, I would be in favorof a multifaceted approach, meaning to take recourse
to various branches of law: Int. Humanitarian Law(IHL), Human Rights Law, Environmental Law.
Comprehensiveness would also be advisable inrelation to scenarios: military activities, or situation
before, during and after conflict. This would bein line with the concept pursued by the ILC Special
Rapporteur (on conflict and the environment), Marie
Jacobsson (distinguishing between phases I, II and III),and would mean to cover, for instance, firing ranges aswell as post-conflict constellations (“ius post bellum”).
In the Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion theInternational Court of Justice (ICJ) also examines
various law branches to finally focus on IHL, based on
the rule of lex specialis according to which special law
is superseding more general law. I, for my part, andreflecting on the broader environmental topic, would
suggest to somewhat ignore, or relativize, this rule andapply various legal fields and rules in parallel. There isanother aspect formulated by the ICJ which is of great
importance, and which I would call the “functional”
argument. To quote the Court: “…the issue is notwhether the treaties relating to the protection of theenvironment are or are not applicable during an armed
conflict, but rather whether the obligations stemmingfrom these treaties were intended to be obligations of
total restraint during military conflict”.
Proceeding from such an argument of function,or substance, of a rule, it might be possible to override
military or defense exemption clauses that can be foundin some treaties like, e.g., the Miramata Convention

89

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 3

Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons and Depleted Uranium Weapons

prohibiting the use of mercury. Finally, what also
matters very much, is to deal with matters of (State)
responsibility and liability being aware that clear-cut
cases might be difficult to be established or executed.
This brings us to…

(3) A Humanitarian Approach…or that of humanitarian disarmament, which has
become decisive for various areas of arms, warfare
and disarmament. Just in the cases of environmental
destruction by the use of nuclear and uranium weapons,
it means to go beyond the legal or dogmatic debate, andthe search for perfect, or comprehensive solutions.
As the Vienna Pledge of December 2014 has
stressed the complexity of catastrophic humanitarianconsequences linked with use of atomic weapons,raising “moral and ethical questions that go beyond
debates about the legality of nuclear weapons”. Alreadythe so-called Martens Clause, which is an inherent
component of IHL, is stressing the relevance of “…
the principles of international law derived fromestablished custom, from the principles of humanity
and from dictates of public conscience” (art.1 para.
2, Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions).
As these questions and consequences have not,and can not be addressed adequately, the only solution
lies with pragmatic, flexible and preventive schemes. If
only looking at the devastation caused, say, by the useof uranium weapons in Iraq, it becomes obvious, thata complete cleaning-up or decontamination of soil andwater is getting impossible, or simply too expensive…
With an attempt to broaden the perspective fromone military toxic like DU into the context of toxic
environmental destruction by the military, we havedeveloped…

(4) The Toxic Remnants of War (TRW)
Concept
The idea and the notion have been borrowed from“explosive remnants of war”, for which someinternational regulation and scenery exists. With the DU
background and experience in mind, it seems necessary
to deal with environmental harm caused by the military
use of various toxic substances (be it intentionally, or
unintentionally). This, of course, broadens the topic

The photo exhibition Human Cost of Uranium Weapons by
Naomi TOYODA (May 4-16, 2007; EU Headquarters, Brussels)

again as these toxic legacies are ranging from DU andAgent Orange up to the mess left at the NATO firing
range in Salto di Quirra (Sardinia, Italy).
In line with a humanitarian or “civilian”
approach, the TRW concept is rooted in a kind ofanthropocentric consideration - so not to just tackle
with the “natural environment” but more witheffects and consequences for human beings. Only
recently, a TRW network has been launched, with
IALANA being one of the founding members.
As a kind of predecessor or technical andadministrative nucleus, the TRW Project was started
already in 2012 doing a lot of analytical and conceptual
work. Linked to it I was running some legal projectwork and created the TRW Informal Legal Working
Group for exchange and cooperation with interested(and “motivated”) colleagues.
Now, the TRW Project and Network are conceived
to act as a kind of focal point, acting as a catalyst,
or mediator. We will continue with monitoring anddocumenting and also have started with advocacy work.
More can be found at www.trwn.org.
In accordance with the TRW concept and ahumanitarian approach it is of great importance toexplore further the…

(5) Potentials of Human Rights Law
This branch of law, or of legal arguments, seems tobe quite appropriate as it is built around the affectedindividual human being, the victim, the victim’s
perspective and position. So, in a way, we are just within
the mere topic of this World Forum.
If taking a closer look at Human Rights Law in

90

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 3

Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons and Depleted Uranium Weapons

relation to toxic devastation of the environment, one
may come across various rights like the one to life, tohealth, to food, to work and to development. There is
the right to information, which forms a condition for
the enjoyment of other (human) rights.
There is even a special treaty which can be used
as a reference here – the 1990 Aarhus
Convention
on information in environmental matters. So, people
living in areas affected by DU strikes are entitled to be
informed about associated risks based on the (human)right to environmental information.
To find out more about these “environmental
human rights” it might be useful to turn to and tofollow the work of Special Rapporteurs of the Human
Rights Council (HRC) like the one on human rights
and the environmental (as such), or the right to food,to sanitation, to development. Of particular relevancehere, is the activity of the Special Rapporteur “on theimplications for human rights of the environmentallysound management and disposal of hazardous substances
and wastes”.
After a one-site visit, this Special Rapporteur, in2012, presented a report on Marshall Islands Nuclear
Legacy. When confronted by US criticism as to violating
his competences, the Special Rapporteur reacted byreferring to the need “…to cover the gaps in the treatmentof hazardous substances left by the Basel [Convention ontransboundary movements of hazardous wastes] and theHague [Convention on the laws of war]...”As argued earlier – and is widely acknowledged
nowadays – Human Rights Law – remains applicableduring and in relation to armed conflict (and in parallelto IHL). This holds especially true in conjunction withpre- and post-conflict situations. Thus, and on thebasis of substantive human rights rules, a variety ofprocedural possibilities is opened up, as this branch oflaw contains multiple implementation schemes. They
are encompassing reporting procedures (producing theso-called “general comments” by supervisory bodies
on the interpretation of treaty norms) as well as States,individual and collective complaints procedures.
I can imagine that individuals being victims ofenvironmental damage by conflict simply turn to
HRC Special Rapporteurs using electronic, or internet
venues at hand….

May I now turn to an issue, which, of course, justfor lawyers (or advocates) is of particular interest. It is
the question of…

(6) Going to court (?)
For some years already, inside and outside IALANA adebate took place whether, and how, one could go backto the ICJ – after the milestone Advisory Opinion on
Nuclear Weapons in 1996. Especially, the discussion
arose about the issue of arriving at a contentious case.
Frankly, I for myself remained somewhat skeptical as
the overall political situation may now be less favorable
compared to the mid 90ies, and there is always the riskof undermining of what has already been achieved on
the issue of illegality of nuclear weapons (despite the“escape clause” contained in the Advisory Opinion).
Now, there is an answer to this question in terms of
the Nuclear Zero Cases triggered of by the MarshallIslands, which form part of the presentations anddiscussions at this Forum.
The question of whether or not going to court– the issue on the effectiveness of legal proceedings– also developed in connection with Agent Orange.
The results so far are quite disappointing: nothingfor (millions of) Vietnamese victims, and some
(extra-judicial) compensation arrangements for
U.S. veterans. Also, the famous (and involved) U.S.

91

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 3

Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons and Depleted Uranium Weapons

attorney Kenneth Feinberg (who has dealt with othercompensation cases like on 9/11 as well) seems to bequite sceptical as to the usefulness of U.S. civil law
litigation potentials (also in comparison to expenses).
Instead, he stresses the role of the “political muscle”,
and of compensation (super) funds or insurance
solutions.
We, in Germany, as peace or anti-nuclear
movement have gained some “court experience”, too,
which is not at all only positive. This, in particular,
relates to the jurisprudence of the Federal Constitutional
Court, which sometimes is producing unfoundedor negative judgments setting drawbacks for our
endeavors. So, within German IALANA, there is an
ongoing discussion about the usefulness of going to thisor to other courts.
On the other hand, we and others have tried
to do so. The Berlin-based European Center for
Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) is doing agreat job in legally supporting (court)cases presented
by victims of IHL and human rights violations. Amongothers, there has been support lended in torture, drone
and Guantanamo cases as well as to whistle-blower
Edward Snowden.
One of the criminal law foundations used by the
ECCHR, and others, both in relation to substance andprocedure (e.g. the principle of universal jurisdiction)
can be linked to the German International Criminal
code. This positive and progressive piece of domestic
legislation has started to be an efficient tool inpreventing the impunity of war and genocide criminals.
When dealing with nuclear and uranium weapons
from a legal or lawyer’s angle, one cannot escape fromdiscussing(7) The treaty issue
It starts – with the DU experience background – withthe blurring notion of to “ban”. So, the Coalition,
presenting a Draft Treaty on banning DU weapons,
was criticized as acting in a counter-productive manner
because DU weaponry was regarded already “banned”
under international law. In reality, the draft treaty wasmeant to reaffirm existing prohibiting, or restraining
use rules (being quite important in view of ongoingcausialty debates), and, moreover to provide for theelimination of those weapons (which is impossible toachieve without a treaty).
Meanwhile, the ICBUW movement does notsee many realistic opportunities to arrive at a DU banor abolition treaty, or, only, to officially discuss andnegotiate a corresponding draft. Nevertheless, theDraft Convention remains the crucial conceptual legal
document.
With this in mind, we would be in favorof flexibility and combination relating to draft
instruments (including a possible Protocol on toxic
remnants of war to the Convention on conventional
weapons) based on existing (treaty) law. As
demonstrated, there is abundance of Human Rights andEnvironmental Law treaties one may refer to…
Moreover, customary international law would
come into play, particularly in the area of IHL, coupledby (international) legal principles, like the one on
proportionality, or the precautionary principle (being
part of both IHL and Environmental Law). This,apparently, has also been the working approach of
institutions like the ICJ and the ICRC.
Within the TRW Informal Legal Working Group,a TRW Draft Declaration has been fleshed out proving
to such a flexible and combining rapprochement. It
is modelled along the lines of the Cluster Munitions
Convention and the Mine Ban Treaty containing
pertinent chapters (like on preventive measures, victim
assistance and cooperation).
To come to an end, allow me some brief remarks on(8) The Nuclear Angle…, which constitutes the essential background andlink when dealing with the topic(s) of nuclear and
DU weapons. It is all around “uranium”: uranium
enrichment, the production of depleted uranium,
uranium mining (where the environmental catastrophe
starts).
Therefore, it seems to be important that the supra-,or meta-subject of uranium is dealt with and discussed
somewhere. Activities and processes have started in thisregard, if only to mention the Rio-based International
Uranium Film Festival (which already four times came
to Berlin), or the Conference in Quebec/Canada thisspring. Obviously, a global network on the issue has

92

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 3

Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons and Depleted Uranium Weapons

started to take shape.
For Germany, it means that the nuclear phase-out(by 2020) remains incomplete without closing down
the URENCO enrichment facility at Gronau. Moreover,and this is a constant and urgent demand of German
IALANA, NATO “nuclear-sharing” must be stopped,
which means, among other things, the deployment of U.S.
nuclear bombs on German soil (at Buechel airfield), in
violation of the NPT and the Two-Plus-Four treaty.
Finally, on…

(9) Campaigning and outlook
My presentation has tried to reflect on linked concepts,
approaches and experience in the fight against nuclear
and uranium weapons. Though concrete accesses
and activities are – and remain – different, some(international) coordination and exchange might beuseful, and possible – through (as pointed out) using
environmental, or TRW schemes.

Existing and emerging networks should be
strengthened and brought together in pursuing theseaims. This concerns IALANA, IPPNW, ICBUW,TRWN, a (possible) Uranium Network and others.
It relates also to the search for new allies, especiallyin the human rights and environmental fields.
More attention should be paid to the role of media
and art, just with regard to these complex issues. It
might be useful to (also) organize some exchange
events, like the example of the Uranium Film Festival.
Public and campaign actions can be focused around
November, 6 – the UN Day against environmental
destruction through war.
And finally, why not establishing the researchand university subject-matter of “warfare ecology”.
Discussion and exchange on such an idea already has
started…
Thank you for your attention. Looking forward toquestions and comments.

Please click here to go back to the program

93

The
TheWorld
WorldNuclear
NuclearVictims
VictimsForum,
Forum,Hiroshima
Hiroshima

NovemberNovember22,
22,2015
2015

SessionSession 44

FromUranium
UraniumMining,
Mining,Nuclear
NuclearPower,
Power,Fuel
FuelCycle
Cycle
Campaign
Campaignagainst
againstNuclear
NuclearMaterial
MaterialUses:
Uses:From

Session 4

The World Nuclear Victims Forum

Campaign against Nuclear Material Uses:
From Uranium Mining, Nuclear Power, Fuel Cycle
Coordinators: Shoji Kihara (We Don’t Want Nuclear Power Plants Hiroshima Citizens’ Group): Kiyoshi Toda (Professor, Nagasaki University Environmental Studies)

Presenters:

1) Ruiko Muto (Representative, Complainants for
the Criminal Prosecution of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster) ……95
2) Kumar Sundaram (India: Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace)3) Shriprakash (India: Documentary Director, “Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda”) ……99

Coordinators :Coordinators :Shoji KIHARA

Kiyoshi TODA

Profile: Mr. Kihara was born in Hiroshima
in 1949. Mr. Kihara worked at NTT (Nippon
Telephone and Telegram Coorporation) since
1967, and retired in 2009. In 1978, just before
the UN Special Session on Disarmament, hevisited the U.S. to meet with members of peaceorganizations. After this experience, Mr. Kihara
started a Hiroshima-citizens’ association against
nuclear power generation and is still active as its
representative today. Publications in Japanese
include: Scandal of Nuclear Power Generation(2010); My Hiroshima Notes (1997); Travel from
Hiroshima to Chernobyl (1997).

Prod. Kiyoshi Toda specializes in environmentalsociology and peace studies, and his
publications include: Enquiry concerning
Environmental Justice (in Japanese, 1994; inKorean, 1996); Environmental Studies andPeace Studies (in Japanese and Korean,2003); Environmental Justice and Peace:
Rethinking American Problems (in Japanese,2009);  Rethinking Nuclear Power Generation(2012) .

Director, We Don’t Want Nuclear Power
Plants Hiroshima Citizens’ Group

Professor, Nagasaki University Environmental
Studies

94

The
TheWorld
WorldNuclear
NuclearVictims
VictimsForum,
Forum,Hiroshima
Hiroshima

NovemberNovember22,
22,2015
2015

95
SessionSession44 95

FromUranium
UraniumMining,
Mining,Nuclear
NuclearPower,
Power,Fuel
FuelCycle
Cycle
Campaign
Campaignagainst
againstNuclear
NuclearMaterial
MaterialUses:
Uses:From

Increasing Piles of Container Bags Resulting from the “Decontamination” Work; Iidate Village in Fukushima, March 2016 (photo: Naomi Toyoda)

The Fukushima Nuclear
Disaster Never Ends

Never Give Up, Stay Connected, Think for Yourself

Ruiko MUTO

Representative, Plaintiff Group for Criminal Prosecution of the
Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
Born in Fukushima Prefecture. After the Chernobyl nuclear accident
in 1986, Ms Ruiko Muto began activities against nuclear power. In
2003 she opened a café “Kirara” in a forest area, proposing a lifestylein harmony with mother earth, but had to give up the café due to the
TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 2011. In thefollowing year she became representative of the plaintiff group pursuing
the criminal responsibility of TEPCO, “Complainants for Criminal
Prosecution of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster.” She is also a memberof Fukushima Women Against Nukes, and a recipient of the 2013
“Yayori “Award for Women's Human Rights Activities. Publications(in Japanese) include To You from Fukushima (2012; photos by T.
Morizumi) and To You from Fukushima Ten Years After. (2021).

It has been four years and eight months since the disasterat TEPCO’s (Tokyo Electric Power Company) Fukushima
No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. Yet, far from ending, thedisaster reshapes, alters and deepens. Unimaginableproblems have emerged for each and every one of us.
Problems besetting the victims remain unsolved. TEPCO’s
No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant doesn’t even know where its
melted nuclear fuel is. Unknown but vast quantities ofcontaminated water have flowed into the sea. Even now,
more radioactive substances are emitted into air and sea
daily. Every day, approximately 7,000 workers are exposed

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 4

Campaign against Nuclear Material Uses: From Uranium Mining, Nuclear Power, Fuel Cycle

to radiation. Employed under a system of subcontractors,
workers are exploited, endangered and, in some cases, lostto fatal accidents.
The exhaust towers at reactors 1 and 2 are 120 meterstall. The steel framing that supports them is damaged here
and there. This basic exhaust tower piece that was used
to vent Reactor 1 is highly radioactive. It has beenmeasured at 25 Sieverts. Anyone in the vicinity of thatpart of the tower for more than 15 minutes would die.
No one can even go close. TEPCO’s answer is to observe
the towers? The reactors? every day with binoculars.
Radioactive material accumulated t h r o u g hdecontamination efforts has been piled into mountains
all over Fukushima Prefecture. It’s left out in the open
or buried in schoolyards or backyards. People are livingwith it. Dangerous radioactive waste like this is supposed
to be stored in strong steel drums and handled with greatcare. In our case, the quantities are so great that it iscasually collected in plastic bags. To reduce the volumeof radioactive material (8000 Becquerels per kilogram ormore), nuclear-industry-related companies set up temporary
incinerators and make another good profit.
The incinerators are built by the Environment
Ministry, but they are “temporary.” The plan is to destroy
them in two to five years, but they cost five to six hundred
million dollars. The decontamination is being done bygeneral contractors, in other words, the construction
companies that build nuclear power plants, so they are
profiting again. The decontamination is being done bycompanies that build nuclear power plants. They hire staff
who lost their jobs due to the disaster as well as migrant
workers.
Fukushima Prefecture and the national government
have cleared the evacuation orders for many areas whereradiation levels are still high. They have also terminatedcompensation and, in some cases, abolished the free rent
system for victims. They have begun cutting assistancewithout listening to the victims’ concerns. The current
policy for those being prepared to return to their homes
amounts to “Go back, live your lives, and deal with theradiation.”

The New Myth of Safety
The deaths in Fukushima Prefecture due to the nuclear
disaster far outnumber those who died in the tsunami.

Many arrived at the end of their rope, caught between
love of hometown and fear of radiation.
Enormous radiation education facilities have been
built. TV celebrities have been hired to appear in mangathat explain radiation to children. Children are the target
audience. These manga create a new radiation safety myth,sealing off any fear of exposure or health anxieties.
Miharu, my home, is about to receive an
Environment Creation Center. That is where our radiation
education will take place. All fifth graders in Fukushima
Prefecture will come to our center on field trips. The
center will be run by Fukushima Prefecture, the Japan
Atomic Energy Agency, and the National Institute forEnvironmental Studies. The IAEA will have an office there
as well. In addition, a nonprofit corporation has organizeda Volunteer Cleaning Project for Highway 6, which has
just recently re-opened. To do that cleaning, they recruited
junior high and high school students. That project had
about 200 young children out there cleaning Highway 6,
which is still quite contaminated. This project is a form of
propaganda created by that center.

Three Issues to Address
Faced with all this major damage, we need to address
three broad issues. First, we need to hold the authorities
accountable for the accident. Why are the victims not being
properly cared for? Why are they trying to restart reactors
and export the technology? The accident isn’t even over!
One answer to those questions is that we havenever adequately pursued accountability for the disaster.
When the meltdowns occurred, I assumed they would
bring an end to the nuclear industry in Japan. Witnessing

96

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 4

Campaign against Nuclear Material Uses: From Uranium Mining, Nuclear Power, Fuel Cycle

Chairman Katsumata and former Vice Presidents Muto and
Takekuro.
During this fight, many concealed facts have been
uncovered by journalists and lawyers. For example, thepossibility of a monstrous tsunami was widely known
in advance. TEPCO calculated what it would take to
avoid damage from a 15.7-meter tidal wave and studied
possible protective measures. In full awareness of therisks, they decided that the cost of protective measures
was too high, so they did nothing. That is why thetsunami did such catastrophic damage.
The criminal trial that is about to begin will bringto light many more facts about the nuclear disaster.
This critically important trial has the potential to keepsuch mistakes from recurring; it could finally shut down
the nuclear industry. The Fukushima Nuclear Power
Plaintiffs’ Team will create a committee to assist theprosecution. We need the Japanese and the world to
pay close attention to this trial. Please help us get it theattention it deserves.
We have also brought suit against TEPCO
employees directly involved in tsunami
countermeasures and officials in the former Nuclear
and Industrial Safety Agency. The Public Prosecutors
Office has, of course, refused to pursue this, but now,
the Government Inquest Committee is deliberating thispossibility. As Professor Toda said previously, the issueof contaminated water should be brought as charges
against TEPCO officers for violating environmental
pollution laws. In October of this year, this has finallybeen taken up and is being investigated by Fukushima
District Prosecutors Office.

Issue 2 – Obtain Assistance for theVictims
The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Victims Federation(Hidanren) was formed in May this year. The name issomething of an imitation of Hidankyo (A-bomb Sufferers
Association). Under this name, 21 organizations are suingfor victim compensation, demanding ADR (alternative
dispute resolution), calling for administrative litigation,and bringing other suits. Transcending significant
differences of position and thinking, they have taken pains
to understand each other, and are now loosely connected.
This is extremely important.
In July this year, despite temperatures of 39 degrees
Celsius, Hidanren carried out a demonstration to demandthat all orders to return to still-contaminated areas berescinded, that victims be compensated for emotionalsuffering, and that recently terminated housing funds bereinstituted. We called for Fukushima Prefecture to takethese demands to the national government. Fukushima
Prefecture has yet to give us a satisfactory reply, but wewill continue to press our demands.
In March next year, we will hold a large gatheringin Tokyo. We want more people to know what is going on
in Fukushima, and we want to negotiate directly with thenational government. In addition to Hidanren, an Evacuees
Association of people who now live all around the country
is demanding the right to remain evacuees eligible forcompensation. There is also a federation of plaintiffs
involved in compensation suits. More and more plaintiffs
are joining those suits, and they are developing effective
solidarity.

97The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 4

Campaign against Nuclear Material Uses: From Uranium Mining, Nuclear Power, Fuel Cycle

The Third Issue is Harm to Health

The greatest worry is harm to the health of children. A
preliminary Prefectural Health Survey done by Fukushima
Prefecture surveyed children who were 18 or younger at
the time of the disaster. They studied 300,000 of the total
370,000 children affected. Of those, as of August 31 thisyear, 98 had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, with 13
more suspected of having cancer.
A second survey, the so-called Main Survey, isunderway now. This survey has examined 170,000
children so far and has found an additional 6 cases ofthyroid cancer, with another 19 cases of suspected cancer.
The new report will come out at the end of November.
The Prefectural Health Survey team has said that it isdifficult to see any causal connection between thyroid
cancer and the nuclear disaster. But can that be true?
Some epidemiologists are saying these numbers represent
an outbreak. Professor Tsuda of Okayama University has
written a paper pointing to the causal relations between
these thyroid cancers and the nuclear disaster.
When it comes to the health of children, we mustabide by the precautionary principle. A detailed healthsurvey is necessary and should be accompanied bytreatment and measures to reduce exposure. Moreover, if
health problems emerge in the future, we need a system
to guarantee appropriate treatment. However, I see no
movement in that direction. The low public awareness inJapan of the rights of children is alarming.
Last month, a report designated acute leukemia as an
occupational disorder among nuclear workers. We must
be concerned about the health of the many workers who
have been cleaning up the disaster. Harm to them can only
be considered harm caused by the Fukushima nuclear
disaster. And yet, the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant in
Kagoshima Prefecture has restarted. The Ikata Plant is set
to restart. They still have no plans to evacuate residents
who need assistance. They just keep saying they have theworld’s best safety measures. With no earthquake proofing,no vent filters, no core catchers, and no countermeasuresin place, they plan to operate right next to a volcano. Still,they are doing their best to restart.
As a result of the Fukushima disaster, a small
committee in the Ministry of the Economy is quietly
making decisions to limit greatly the compensation that canbe received if another disaster takes place. This is not evengoing through the Diet. Restarting reactors inevitably carries
the risk of another Fukushima-type disaster.
When such a tragedy occurs, we should learn from it
and take steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again. What
the government is doing will not alleviate the anger andgrief of the people who have been and are being sacrificed.
Its measures will not create a society in which everyone
can live in safety and security. What we have lost to the
Fukushima nuclear disaster is our dignity and the sanctityof life.

Three Keys to Eliminating Nuclear Power
So how can we eliminate nuclear power? The first key
is, never give up. Pursuing responsibility for the nuclear
disaster is a long and hard road, but we can’t give up.
Those who were harmed are, in part, responsible for
ensuring that it never happens again.
Another key is, stay connected. We have to getbeyond position and ideology to understand each other andwork together. The forces in favor of nuclear power will
do everything they can to divide us. We must vigilantly
guard against that. Let’s stay together.
The third key is “Think for yourself.” This
nuclear disaster is a negative legacy we are bequeathing
to our youth, our children and to all future generations.
We are harming non-human life as well. For a few yearsof convenient electricity, we have allowed insects, fish,
all sorts of other animals, and even plants to be harmed
unnecessarily by radiation.
To eliminate nuclear power, we need to value allforms of life. Let’s create a world in which each individualis valued. Let’s create a world with no nuclear power andno war. We have to keep these goals in our minds and do
whatever we can as individuals.
This is our elderly family dog (pointing to slide).
At nineteen-years-old, he always reminds me to think formyself. I want to learn from people all around the world
who have been harmed by radiation. I want to learn fromthe abolition movements wherever they are happening.
I want to connect with many I have met at this forum,
anyone who has been harmed by radiation. I want to lift
my voice with your voices, and the voices of all who are
working for a world free from nuclear power, nuclear
weapons, and war.
Thank you.

98

The
TheWorld
WorldNuclear
NuclearVictims
VictimsForum,
Forum,Hiroshima
Hiroshima

NovemberNovember22,
22,2015
2015

99
SessionSession 44 99

FromUranium
UraniumMining,
Mining,Nuclear
NuclearPower,
Power,Fuel
FuelCycle
Cycle
Campaign
Campaignagainst
againstNuclear
NuclearMaterial
MaterialUses:
Uses:From

ShriprakashIndia: Documentary Director, “Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda”
profile: An independent documentary filmmaker. Studying science andjournalist at Ranchi University, he became interested in using video as
an activist medium. To convey the struggles of the indigenous peoples inIndia, Shriprakash has produced several documentaries including Buddha
Weeps in Jadugoda (1999), which presented the devastating effects of
the uranium mining in the area and received the grand prix at the EARTH
VISION: Global Environmental Film Festival in 2000. Shriprakash uses only
his first name as a protest against the Indian caste system, in which familynames indicates castes.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 22, 2015

Session 4 100

Campaign against Nuclear Material Uses: From Uranium Mining, Nuclear Power, Fuel Cycle

Campaign against Nuclear Material Uses:

From Uranium Mining,
Nuclear Power, Fuel
Message:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mr. Shriprakash’s new documentary film,
entitled NABIKEI footprints Southwest:

A journey to reveal the legacy of uranium
mining in southwest of USA., was shown at
the Forum.

Jadugoda is a tiny village in the Eastern part of India,
located in province of Jharkhand. It is famous for several
uranium mines, mills and dams. There are several mines(one open cast), two mills and four tailing dams. This
area is home to tribal communities namely Santhal, Ho
and others.
Around 1960, exploration for uranium started in thearea; local communities were completely unaware of
impact of hazard of uranium radiation. Strange illness,
unnatural deaths, still births, miscarriage, sterility incouples is the reality. They could not comprehend thereason. It was their own experience of the new problems
which became their outcry. For last 20 years, Jharkhandi
Organization Against Radiation (JOAR) and many otherindividuals and organizations have tried to find answer
to the new situation facing the tribal communities in
Jadugoda. In their quest for the reason, they knocked
every possible doors- health study, street protests,
going to the judiciary, seeking help of the media to carry
reports—and all seems to have miserably failed.
It is sad that while, on the one hand, Indian scientists
are trying to explore the solar system, the Moon and Mars
as new frontiers, the Communities in Jadugoda are notable to find the reason for their misery. And neither are thescientific communities willing to help them in discovering
the correct reason behind their miseries.
The film screening and photo exhibition is showing
the current situation of the communities. Support fromJapanese antinuclear organization and other part of
the world is very crucial for the people of Jadugoda.
Hope that this conference will highlight the plight of thecommunities and that justice may dawn in their lives.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 23, 2015

Session 5 101

How to Develop a Nuclear Victims’ Network Hereafter

Session 5

The World Nuclear Victims Forum

How to Develop a Nuclear Victims’ Network Hereafter
Coordinator team : Nobuo Kazashi, (Joint Representative, WNVF)
						
(See Addenda for profile)					

Shoji Kihara (Director, We Don’t Want Nuclear Power Plants Hiroshima Citizens’ Group)  (Profile: See Session-4)					Maki Sato (Secretary General, JIM Net=Japan Iraq Medical Network,							International Adviser, Team Beco )					Katsumi Furitsu (ICBUW, Chernobyl Hibakusha Relief Kansai						
(See Session-2 for profile)					Haruko Moritaki (Secretary General, WNVF)
						
(See Opening for profile)		-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------		
Reports from each of the 9 sessions				

Plenary discussion, Part 1
Plenary discussion, Part 2“A Little More Action Please”: At the Preparatory Committee for the NPT Review
Conference held in Vienna in 2012.
(photo: Youth Network for Nuclear Disarmament ／ CC BY-NC 2.0）

List of Supporting Organizations (As of Nov. 4, 2015; in alphabetical order)
Agenda Project (Kyoto)
All-Japan Prefectural and Municipal Workers Union (Jichiroren)-Hiroshima Prefecture
Ant-Hiroshima (NPO)
Barefoot Gen Promotion Association (NPO Hadashino Gen o hiromeru-kai)
Bouquet of Asia (Ajia-no hanataba)
Campaign against Radiation Exposure (Osaka)Campaign to Abolish Nuclear & Uranium Weapons-Fukuoka
Catholic Hiroshima Diocese & Hiroshima Catholic Council for Justice and Peace
Chernobyl Relief Group of Kansai
Citizensʼ Nuclear Information Center
East Japan Railway Workers Union
Fukuyama Citizen Movement Exchange Center
Hadano “Peace City Declaration” Association
Hibakusha Support Network
Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA)[* HANWA functioned as a main base for the Executive Committee of the Forum.]
Hiroshima Association for Peace-Democracy-Reform (Kakushinkon-Hiroshima)
Hiroshima Prefecture Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations
Hiroshima Prefecture Federation of Democratic Medical Institutions
Hiroshima Prefecture Labor Union Hibakusha Groups Liaison Council
Hiroshima Medical Health CO-OP
Hiroshima Medical Personnel-The Article 9 Association
Hiroshima Medical Practitioners Association
Hiroshima Network for the Resolution of the Issue of Japanese Military "Comfort Women"
Hiroshima Prefecture Branch -Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs
Hiroshima Prefecture Branch-Japan National Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb
Hiroshima Shoko-dantai-rengokai (commercial-industrial association network)
HPS (Hiroshima Peace Station) International Volunteers (NPO)ICBUW (International Campaign to Ban Uranium Weapons) -Japan
Japan Asia Africa LatinAmerica Solidarity Committee
Japan Asia Africa LatinAmerica Solidarity Committee-Hiroshima
Japan Christian Womenʼs Association-Fukuoka
Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs
Japanese Medical and Dental Practitioners for the Improvement of Medical Care (Hodanren)
Japan National Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs
JIM-NET (Japan Iraq Medical Network)
Kawasaki Liaison Council against Discrimination of Foreigners
Miyajima Motorboat Race Labor Union
Nagasaki Global Citizensʼ Assembly for Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (Executive Committee)
National Liaison Council for Anti-Nuclear Plants Campaign
Network against Military Bases
New Humanism Forum-Yokohama (NPO)NO DU Hiroshima Project
NO DU-Kobe
NO MORE DU
NO Nukes Asia Forum-Japan
No Nukes Association of Municipal Assembly Members & Citizens
Peace Boat
Peace Link/Hiroshima-Kure-Iwakuni
Physicians against Nuclear War-Ishikawa
Physicians against Nuclear War-Japan
Rissho Kosei-kai/ Local Support Project
Sayonara Nuclear Plants-Hiroshima
Soka Gakkai, Peace Committee
Solidarity Nagoya
Stop! DU Campaign (Tokyo)
Stop Kaminoseki Nuclear Plant Hiroshima
The Anglican Episcopal Church in Japan
The Article 9 Hiroshima
Wakasa Solidarity Action Network
Please click here to go back to the program

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 23, 2015

Closing Session 103

Closing Session
Moderator: Noriko Nakajima (WNVF)“World Charter of Nuclear Radiation Victims’ Rights” Proposal/Adoption
Shuichi Adachi, (Japan Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, WNVF)
Special Appeal in Relation to the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Proposal/Adoption
Tadashi Sawada, Assistant Secretary General, WNVF)
Closing Remarks: Masao Tomonaga (Joint Representative, WNVF)-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Concurrently (International Conference Center, Himawari): Hibakusha Worldwide Poster Exhibit(produced by IPPNW Germany; with Japanese translation): Photo Exhibit of the Damage from Uranium Mining in Jadugoda, India; by Ashish Biluree--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moderator:

Noriko NAKAJIMA
HANWA

Profile: Ms Noriko Nakajima has been involved invarious peace activities including HANWA (Hiroshima
Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition), Director of
Mirai (Future), Hiroshima Women’s NPO Center, anda member of the Executive Committee of WNVF (theWorld Nuclear Victims Forum).

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 23, 2015

Closing Session 104

Declaration of the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima(Draft Elements of a Charter of World Nuclear Victims’ Rights)
1.
2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

November 23, 2015

We, participants in the World Nuclear Victims Forum, gathered in Hiroshima from November 21 to 23 in2015, 70 years after the atomic bombings by the US government.
We define the nuclear victims in the narrow sense of not distinguishing between victims of military andindustrial nuclear use, including victims of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and of nuclear
testing, as well as victims of exposure to radiation and radioactive contamination created by the entire
process including uranium mining and milling, and nuclear development, use and waste. In the broad sense,
we confirm that until we end the nuclear age, any person anywhere could at any time become a victim=apotential Hibakusha , and that nuclear weapons, nuclear power and humanity cannot coexist.
We recall that the radiation, heat and blast of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki sacrificed
not only Japanese but also Koreans, Chinese, Taiwanese and people from other countries there as a result ofJapan’s colonization and invasion, and Allied prisoners of war. Those who survived “tasted the tortures ofhell.” We pay tribute to the fact that the Hibakusha question the responsibility of the Japanese government
which conducted a war of aggression; call for recognition of the right to health and a decent livelihood;
have achieved some legal redress and continue to call for state redress to be clearly incorporated within
the Atom Bomb Victims Relief Law; struggle to guarantee the rights of those who experienced the atomic
bombings yet are not recognized as Hibakusha ; and call not only for nuclear weapons abolition but also
oppose nuclear power restarts and exports, and demand adequate assistance for nuclear power plant disastervictims.
We noted that through the international conferences on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons held in
Oslo in 2013 and in Nayarit and Vienna in 2014, the understanding is widely shared internationally that thedetonation of nuclear weapons would cause catastrophic harm to the environment, human health, welfare
and society; would jeopardize the survival of the human family; and adequate response is impossible. We
warmly welcome the Humanitarian Pledge endorsed by 121 states, pledging to fill the legal gap for theprohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. We support the adoption in early November 2015 at the UN
General Assembly First Committee, by an overwhelming majority of 135 in favor with only 12 opposed,of a resolution convening an open-ended working group “to substantively address concrete effective legal
measures… and norms that will need to be concluded to attain and maintain a world without nuclear
weapons.”
We acknowledge that the mining and refining of uranium, nuclear testing, and the disposal of nuclear
waste are being carried out based on ongoing colonization, discriminatory oppression, and infringementof indigenous peoples’ rights, including their rights to relationships with their ancestral land. These
activities impose involuntary exposure to radiation and contaminate the local environment. Thus, the local
populations are continually and increasingly deprived of the basic necessities for human life with ever moreof them becoming nuclear victims.
We also reconfirmed that every stage of the nuclear fuel chain contaminates the environment and damages
the ecosystem, causing a wide array of radiation-related disorders in people and other living beings.
Through the experience of the nuclear disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima, we see that nuclear accidents
inevitably expose entire populations living near the power plants and the workers assigned to cope withthe accident to harmful levels of radiation, and that adequate response to such a disaster is impossible. We
further see that radioactive contamination is inevitably a global phenomenon. We know that “military” and“industrial” nuclear power are intimately connected within a unified nuclear industry, and that every stageof the nuclear fuel chain, including the use of depleted uranium weapons, creates large numbers of new
nuclear victims.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 23, 2015

Closing Session 105

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.
14.
15.
16.

17.

Complete prevention of disasters related to the nuclear fuel chain is impossible. No safe method exists
for disposing of ever-increasing volumes of nuclear waste. Nuclear contamination is forever, making itutterly impossible to return the environment to its original state. Thus, we stress that the human family must
abandon its use of nuclear energy.
We acknowledge that the Atomic Bomb Trial against the State of Japan (the Shimoda Case; December1963) found that the US military violated international law in dropping the atomic bombs, and that theadvisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice stated that “there exists an obligation to pursue
in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects understrict and effective international control” (July 1996). We support the Marshall Islands, whose people
have suffered the effects of intensive nuclear testing, in bringing this issue back to the Court in April 2014
through filing cases against nine nuclear armed states.
Furthermore, we recall the World Conference of Nuclear Victims which pursued criminal liability on
the part of the nuclear weapon states and the nuclear industry (New York Resolution, 1987), and that the
military industrial complex was found to have the responsibility of providing damages compensation (Berlin
Resolution, 1992). In addition, we confirm that the International People’s Tribunal on the Dropping of Atomic
Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki found all 15 defendants guilty, including President Truman (July 2007).
We emphasize that all states that promote nuclear energy, the operators that cause radioactive contamination,and the manufacturers of nuclear facilities including nuclear power plants must bear liability for damages
done, as do their shareholders and creditors. We are gravely concerned that the export of nuclear power
plants is extremely likely to result in severe human rights abuses and environmental damage.
We accuse the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the International Commission on
Radiological Protection (ICRP) of underestimating the harm done by radiation exposure and hiding thetrue effects of nuclear power accidents. We demand the abolition of the IAEA’s mandate to “promote thepeaceful use of nuclear power”.
We have identified that the military-industrial-government-academic complex and states that support it
have, through the use of nuclear energy, degraded the foundations of human life, and violated the right tolife of all living beings. We assert that the acts of members of this complex violate fundamental principles
of international humanitarian, environmental and human rights law.
We condemn the Japanese government for failing to learn from the Fukushima disaster, without carryingout adequate investigations into the facts and impacts, hiding and trivializing the damage, and cutting off
assistance to the victims, while investing in the restart and export of nuclear power plants. We oppose thebuilding, operating or exporting of nuclear power plants or any industrial nuclear facility in Japan or any
other country.
We call for the termination of uranium mining, milling, nuclear fuel production, nuclear power generation
and reprocessing, and for the abolition of the entire nuclear fuel cycle.
We call for the urgent conclusion of a legally binding international instrument which prohibits and provides
for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
We call for the prohibition of manufacture, possession and use of depleted uranium weapons.
With the momentum of this World Nuclear Victims Forum, we confirm our desire to continue to cooperate
in solidarity and share information regarding nuclear victims, and disseminate our message through various
methods including art and media.
Thus, as a result of this World Nuclear Victims Forum and in order to convey to the world the draft elementsof a World Charter of the Rights of Nuclear Victims, we adopt this Hiroshima Declaration.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 23, 2015

Closing Session 106

Draft Elements of a World Charter of the Rights of Nuclear Victims

Draft Elements of a World Charter of the Rights of Nuclear Victims［Ⅰ］The Basis of Rights of Nuclear Victims

1. The natural world is the foundation of all life, and each human being is an integral member of the humanfamily innately endowed with the right to partake in human civilization with equal rights to life, physical andemotional wellbeing, and a decent livelihood.
2. All peoples have the right to be free from fear and want, and to live in an environment of peace, health andsecurity.
3. Each generation has the right to enjoy a sustainable society and the responsibility of effective stewardship forthe benefit of the future generations of all living beings.
4. There exists the inherent dignity of the human person and the right of all peoples to self-determination
as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, the rights to life, health and survival as stipulated ininternational positive law including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenantson Human Rights, and the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as exists the principle ofinternational customary law which helps to shape the emerging “law of humanity”.

［Ⅱ］Rights(1) To alleviate current and prevent future nuclear catastrophes, all persons living in the nuclear age have the right todemand the following:
1. Not to be exposed to ionizing radiation other than that which occurs in nature or is for medical purposes,
2. Prohibition of coerced labor involving potential exposure to ionizing radiation, and when labor involving suchpotential exposure cannot be avoided, for exposure to be minimized,
3. Minimization of medical exposure to ionizing radiation, and4. Full, accurate information regarding the dangers of ionizing radiation exposure through school and community
education; this information to include the facts that no level of radiation exposure is without risk and thatchildren, women and girls are especially sensitive to radiation.
(2) Additionally, nuclear victims have the right to demand the following:
5. Nuclear victims have rights under domestic law derived from human rights and basic freedoms, including
personal rights and the right to health.
6. To receive free of charge the best possible medical care and regular examinations for effects related to past,present and future exposure; this right to extend to the 2nd, 3rd and future generations.
7. An apology and compensation from the offending party for all damage to life, health, finance, suffering, andculture related to the use of nuclear energy.
8. The remediation of radiation contaminated land and domicile, and the renewal of community and local culture.
9. Thorough scientific investigation of the Victims exposure by competent scientists independent of the offending
party, with all findings and information completely open to the public, and the victims themselves involved in
the investigation and control of information.
10. To not be forced to return to radiation contaminated land, and for the freedom to choose whether to evacuatefrom or remain in a radiation affected area. And, no matter this choice, to receive support to minimize exposure
to radiation, protect health, and maintain and rebuild a way of life.
11. To refuse to work in an environment where radioactive contamination could constitute a health threat, said
refusal having no negative ramifications for the victim.

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 23, 2015

Closing Session 107

World Nuclear Victims Forum Organizing Committee

World Nuclear Victims Forum Organizing Committee
Name
Takashi Hiraoka
Hideo Tsuchiyama
Katsuaki Aoki
Masao Tomonaga
Nobuo Kazashi
Haruko Moritaki
Tadashi Sawada
Noboru Tazaki
Nanao Kamada
Isao Amemiya
Shoji Kihara
Tomoko Watanabe
Sumiko Fujii
Shuichi Adachi
Yuko Shigesue
Katsumi Toshimoto
Takekatsu Tamuro
Takeo Nakaoku
Yoshie Funahashi
Yukuko Fujiwara
Etsuko Nakatani
Noriko Nakashima
Akira Kawasaki
Meri Joyce
Steve Leeper
Naoko Koizumi
Tamayo Okamoto
Takayuki Nakamura
Kuniko Watanabe
Tetsuo Kaneko
Fumikazu Yoshida
Takashi Koezuka
Kenji Namba
Shoko Ishida
Keisaburo Toyonaga
Akira Kamei
Atsushi Ichinose
Yukio Yokohara
Kazunari Mizota
Shiro Taki
Kunihiko Sakuma
Takashi Sasaki
Koji Fujimoto
Junko Ogawa
Toshiyuki Tanaka
Naomi Toyota
Kouhei Ueyama

Role

AdvisorAdvisorJoint Representative
Joint Representative
Joint Representative
Secretary General
Deputy Secretary General
Deputy Secretary General Nanao Kamada
Medical Expert / Communication with Nagasaki
Finance oordinator
Domestic guests
Publicity andPublicity and external relatio
Legal aspects, including Human Rights Charte
Translation, interpretation, Guest care
Recording (photo, video, sound, minutes etc)
Recording, (photo. Video, sound, minutes etc)
Recording (photo, video, sound, minutes etc)
Finances
Homepage and IT related
Logistics (accommodation, transport, meals)
Venue
External relations
External (international)reitions
Translation, interpretation Translation
Translation Translation External relations
Translation
External relations, venue
Facebook
External relations
External relations

Offering Photos
Offering Recording video, Promoting presentations

World Nuclear Victims Forum
Simultaneous Interpreters
Interpreters Without Borders
Hiroshi Nakashima
Yoriko Konuma
Motome Ueda
Yukako Ninomiya

Simultaneous Interpreters for theWorld Charter of the Right of Victims

Meri Joyce (peace bort)
Naomi Yamamoto (peace bort)
Irina (Russian)Translation TeamAnn-elise llewallen (US)Yoko Chase (Hyogo)
Meri Joyce (Tokyo)
Akiko Ishikawa (Fukuoka)
Tamayo Okamoto (Hiroshima)
Sumiko Kanetsuna (Hiroshima)
Asami Kuwahara (Hiroshima)
Naoko Koizumi (Hiroshima)
Takao Koga (Hyogo)
Mariko Komatsu (Hiroshima)
Yuko Shigesue (Hiroshima)
Yasuko Terao (Tokyo)
Kiichiro Nakatani (Hiroshima)
Michiko Hamai (Hiroshima)
Ikuyo Mineyuki (Hiroshima)
Masako Miyake (Hiroshima)
Yoko Morita (Hiroshima)
Kaito Sato (US, 2nd Generation Nikkei)
Hitoshi Mukai (Hiroshima)
Yoko Morita (Hiroshima)
Haruko Moritaki (Hiroshima)

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 23, 2015

Closing Session 108

Drafting Committee for the World Charter of “Nuclear Radiation Victims’ Rights”

November 22, 2015: 17:50-20:00(International Conference Hall: Forum Steering Committee Room)

Drafting Committee for the World Charter of“Nuclear Radiation Victims’ Rights”
Co-ordinators:

Shuichi ADACHI (Lawyer, Japan Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms)
Nobuo KAZASHI (Professor, Kobe University)
Interpreter: Meri Joyce (Peace Boat)

Members:

1) Kenji Urata (Professor Emeritus, Waseda University)

2) Manfred Mohr (Lawyer, IALANA-Germany, ICBUW)

3) Tetsuji Imanaka (Assistant Professor, Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute)4) Takeya Sasaki (Director, Japan Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms)

5) Kenichi Okubo (Director, Japan Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms)
6) Akira Kawasaki (Steering Committee of ICAN, Peace Boat)

7) Katsumi Furitsu (ICBUW, Chernobyl Hibakusha Relief Kansai)8) Nobuto Hirano (Co-Director, Association for giving Support to Hibakusha abroad)9) Nanao Kamada (Director of Hiroshima Hibakusha Relief Foundation)10) Ruiko Muto (Representative, Complainants for the Criminal Prosecution of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster)11) ann-elise lewallen (Assistant Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara)

12) Tilman Ruff (Joint representative, IPPNW and ICAN)
13) Mary Dickson (Director of Creative Services)

14) Anatolii Chumak (Vice Director, Institute of Clinical Radiology, Ukraine)15) Maki Sato (Secretary General, JIM Net=Japan Iraq Medical Network)18) Steven Leeper (Former Director, Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation)
		 & Executive Committee members for the World Nuclear Victims Forum		 (Katsuaki Aoki, Yoshie Funahashi, Shoji Kihara, Tadashi Sawada, Haruko Moritaki)

The World Nuclear Victims Forum, Hiroshima

November 23, 2015

Closing Session 109

Drafting Committee for the World Charter of “Nuclear Radiation Victims’ Rights”

Drafting Committee for the World Charter of “Nuclear Radiation Victims’ Rights”
Co-ordinators:

Shuichi ADACHI

Lawyer, Japan Association of
Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms

Nobuo KAZASHI

Professor, Kobe University

Members:

Kenji Urata

Professor Emeritus, Waseda
University

Akira Kawasaki

Manfred Mohr

Tetsuji Imanaka

Lawyer, IALANA-Germany,ICBUWAssistant Professor, Kyoto
University Research Reactor
Institute

Takeya Sasaki

Director, Japan Associationof Lawyers Against Nuclear
Arms

Director, Japan Associationof Lawyers Against Nuclear
Arms

Steering Committee of ICAN,
Peace BoatICBUW, Chernobyl Hibakusha
Relief Kansai

Katsumi Furitsu

Nobuto Hirano

Co-Director, Association forgiving Support to Hibakusha
abroadDirector of Hiroshima
Hibakusha Relief Foundation

Representative, Complainants
for the Criminal Prosecutionof the Fukushima Nuclear
Disasterann-elise lewallen

Tilman Ruff

Mary Dickson

Director of Creative Services

Anatolii Chumak

Vice Director, Institute ofClinical Radiology, Ukraine

Maki Sato

Secretary General, JIM
Net=Japan Iraq Medical
Network

Katsuaki Aoki

Yoshie Funahashi

Shoji Kihara

Haruko Moritaki

Assistant Professor, Universityof California, Santa Barbara

Steven Leeper

Former Director, Hiroshima
Peace Culture Foundation

Joint representative, IPPNW
and ICAN

Joint Representative, WNVF

Professor Emeritus of Philosophy,
Hiroshima University

Nanao Kamada

Kenichi Okubo

Director, We Don’t Want Nuclear
Power Plants Hiroshima Citizens’Group

Ruiko Muto

Co-Representative, Hiroshima
Alliance for Nuclear WeaponsAbolition (HANWA)

Meri Joyce (Interpreter)
Peace Boat

Please click here to go back to the programTowards a Nuclear-Free Future!

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections 110

Toward a Nuclear-Free Future!
August 2021, online version

Addenda:Recent Movements & Reflections[I] Enact the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Now!
2021 Examining the Critical Situation after the INF Treaty’s Collapse ……………………………111
Haruko MORITAKISecretary-General, World Hibakusha Forum[Ⅱ] The Hibakusha Lawsuit: History of Unfair Ruling
Unfair Ruling by the High Court ……………………………………………………………………………………113
Katsuaki AOKI

Co-representative, World Hibakusha (Nuclear Victims) Forum[Ⅲ] What Will Children 300 Years from Now Think?
“Recovery” — Nine Years after the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster …………………………………115
Naomi TOYODA

Photojournalist and documentary film maker[Ⅳ] To Get Back from the Brink of the Nuclear War:
From America in the Coronavirus Crisis………………………………………………………………………117
Joseph T. ScarrySocial justice activist, U.S.

[Ⅴ] The Messages from the World Hibakusha Forum:
Reading Anew in the Midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic …………………………………………………119
Nobuo KAZASHI

Co-Director, the World Nuclear Victims ForumTowards a Nuclear-Free Future!

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections 111
Haruko MORITAKI

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections [I]Enact the Treaty
on the Prohibition of
Nuclear Weapons Now!
2021 Examining the Critical Situation after the INF Treaty’s Collapse
Following the Oslo (2013) and Narayit (2014)conferences, the third international conference on thehumanitarian impact of nuclear weapons was held in
Vienna in December 2014. The global tide towarda legal ban on nuclear weapons was clearly rising.
Civil society and supporting governments began acollaboration that followed closely the cluster bomb
process, showing a heightening determination to ban
nuclear weapons under international law. Participatingstates issued a joint pledge to lay them to rest.
In Hiroshima, birthplace of the anti-nuclear
movement, hibakusha organizations were among 27
groups that came together in 2017 to make the global
call, “Ratify the nuclear ban treaty now!” We held candle
message gatherings and other rallies in the shadow of the
A-bomb Dome. To extend the reach of our appeals, wedelivered a joint statement with inspiring photos to groups
in Japan and overseas. On July 8, 2017, the Treaty on
the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted by theUnited Nations with 122 states voting in favor.

Haruko MORITAKISecretary-General, World Hibakusha ForumThe treaty requires the ratification of 50 nations
to enter into force. In July 2019, two years after UN
adoption, we lined up 1,000 candles whose light formed
the words: RATIFY BAN NUKES NOW 2019. We
sent photos of the scene to UN-related organizations,NGOs, and other entities to grow international support
for hastening the treaty’s entry into force.
Opposing the United Nation’s adoption of the
TPNW, the United States, other nuclear weapon states, andcountries like Japan that depend on the US nuclear umbrella
moved promptly to crush the treaty. The government ofJapan—the atomic bombed country—directly opposed
the treaty and praised the Trump administration’s Nuclear
Posture Review, which kept the use of nuclear weapons as
an option. Japan’s approval of this stance has damaged its
standing in the international community.
But the tidal wave seeking a legal ban on nuclear
weapons is unstoppable. By June 8, 2020, 81 states had
signed the ban treaty, and 38 of these had ratified it.
We have reached this point thanks to ICAN and otherorganizations, but the struggle to gain the ratification of
12 more states continues. These same organizations havealso played a major role in persuading nearly 100 global
financial institutions to disinvest from nuclear weaponsrelated industries since 2017.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s Nuclear
Posture Review of February 2018 called for thedevelopment of “low-yield” nuclear weapons that could
be used in smaller-scale conflicts. In February 2019,
Trump announced that the US would withdraw from theTowards a Nuclear-Free Future!

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections 112
Haruko MORITAKIIntermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty; the abrogation went
into effect in August of that year. This bilateral treaty,
concluded in 1987, prohibited the US and the Soviet
Union from producing, testing, and possessing land-based
nuclear ballistic missiles and cruise missiles with a flight
range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. In abrogating it, theTrump administration inflamed the standoff between the
United States and Russia and China. The US also moved
to deploy land-based intermediate missiles in Asia andEurope. Then, in May 2020, the Trump administration
withdrew the US from the Open Sky Treaty.
Citing the need to fortify the military alliance
between the US and Japan, the Abe administration
planned to bring to Japan the land-based interception
system Aegis Ashore. It was to be deployed in Akita
and Yamaguchi prefectures, but technical problems
and fierce local opposition thwarted the scheme. Partial
installation and related expenses of the Aegis Ashore
system that the US is still pressuring Japan to purchaseare expected to total 2 trillion yen. Japanese taxpayers
have already paid a whopping 140 billion yen for Aegis
Ashore. After being forced to abandon this plan, the Abeadministration, through the National Security Council, isreevaluating its defense policy: studying missile defense
and other systems as well as discussing the possibilityof abandoning its defense-only posture to obtain adangerous enemy-base attack capability. The Act toEstablish the Nuclear Safety Commission stemmingfrom the Atomic Energy Basic Law Revision of 2012
contains a statement to the effect that the commission“aims to contribute to the national security of Japan.”It’s hard to miss the veiled hint that nuclear weapons
may be in Japan’s future.
The three would-be hegemons—the United States,
China, and Russia—are developing and manufacturing“low-yield” nuclear weapons to load onto ballistic
missiles. They are developing hypersonic speed weapons,
while racing to militarize space. Meanwhile, the Japanese
government is joining the arms race with Operation Space
Corps, which Japan’s Air Self Defense Force was forced
to set up, and Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA). The perils are boundless. The abandonmentof international agreements for nuclear disarmament tofacilitate these developments brings into full view thelawless stance of the nations concerned.

On May 22, it was reported that the Trumpadministration’s top defense department officials met to
discuss resuming live nuclear tests. Subcritical nuclear
testing has long continued unabated, but thanks to theComprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), it has beennearly 30 years since the last live nuclear test, which
was conducted underground in 1992.
The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (NewSTART), the last nuclear arms reduction frameworkbinding the United States and Russia, is up for renewal
in February 2021. Russia, which long pushed for thetreaty’s extension, is now preparing for a nuclear attackby the US. Russia’s new guidelines, which include theoption of preemptive attack, strengthen the position of
nuclear weapons in its basic defense strategy. Extensionof the treaty is imperiled.
The New Cold War foments crises that ratchet up
the risk of nuclear war. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) Review Conference scheduled for springof 2020 was postponed due to the rampaging novel
coronavirus; but well before this, the “obligation to workfor nuclear arms reduction” mandated by the NPT had
lost all meaning.
Disregarding the ravages inflicted by COVID-19
on the weak and concealing the truths of its harm
among with those inflicted by abject poverty, radiation
exposure, and sickness, politicians continue to plow ourtaxes into military expansion, further abandoning humanneed.
Nuclear weapons are inhumane and hostile to all
humankind. To make their development, production,
testing, transport, and threat illegal; to provide forassistance to victims of nuclear radiation and clean
the environment of the damage they cause, it is urgent
that we enact this international law—the Treaty on
the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons—an indisputably
humane concept and a feasible means of laying down
nuclear weapons for once and for all.
Given our common understanding based on
historical fact that “humans and nuclear power cannot
coexist indefinitely,” we have no choice but to cooperate
to stand against the mighty power of the nuclear
industrial complex.

Towards a Nuclear-Free Future!

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections 113
Katsuaki AOKIHiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall Reduced to Rubble (now, A-bomb Dome; photo taken by US Army)

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections [Ⅱ]The Hibakusha Lawsuit:
History of an Unfair Ruling(Unfair Ruling by the High Court)

Katsuaki AOKI

Co-representative, World Hibakusha (Nuclear Victims) Forum
Born in Hiroshima City in 1948.  K. Aoki’s mother was a hibakusha.
Graduate of Yokohama City University Medical Department. Former
director of Hiroshima Kyoritsu Hospital. Co-director of Hiroshima
Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (HANWA). Member ofHiroshima Hibakusha Support Network and Physicians Against Nuclear
War (PANW). Since moving to Tokyo in 2019, Dr Aoki is an active
member of Tokyo Physicians for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

Winning a class action suit related to A-bomb disease
made it easier to get malignancies recognized, but
no such recognition was offered to loss of thyroid
functioning, myocardial infarction, cataracts, and otherdisorders. As a result, a No More Hibakusha suit was
filed in April 2009 by hibakusha whose claims were
rejected under the new system. As of July 2021, the suitsof 118 of 120 plaintiffs have ended, with wins in 77% of
those cases. For the remaining two cases in high court
are nearing the critical endgame.

Towards a Nuclear-Free Future!

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections 114
Katsuaki AOKIOn February 25, the High Court issued a ruling.
The point of contention was whether or not the diagnosis
and treatment received by the plaintiffs were clinicallynecessary. With respect to cataracts, the Hiroshima High
Court determined that plaintiffs under observation forthe development of cataracts and were, therefore, using
eyedrops to prepare for surgery should surgery become
necessary. Thus, they were receiving proper and necessary
treatment. However, the Fukuoka High Court overturnedthat decision. The Nagoya High Court ruled in favor ofplaintiffs not taking a hormone for chronic thyroiditis but
under observation for possible treatment; the national
government appealed that decision.
Two hibakusha gave their testimonies for the firsttime before the High Court. Mr. Takai from Nagoya said,“I suffered the acute effects of radiation after the Nagasaki
bombing and have suffered all my life with maladies of
undetermined cause. Please rule in a way that will help
us hibakusha. To fully compensate us for our suffering, I
further ask that you eliminate from this world all of thosecruel nuclear weapons.”
Toshiko Naito from Hiroshima, who testified at
the World Forum said, “I was exposed on my mother’sback when I was 11 months old. I lost two older sisters
to the bomb. I suffered the acute effects of radiation
and was always a weak child. Even as an adult, I havesuffered from many disorders. I started wearing glasses inelementary school. I began seriously losing my eyesight in
my late 40s. I was diagnosed with cataracts. I went to theclinic for examinations every month and got drops in myeyes. I had surgery on my right eye last year. I worry about
the effects on my two children. What we experienced
should never happen again anywhere on Earth.”
The decision with respect to medical necessity
was, “If the treatment was provided because of ahigh medical probability that the disorder in question
will worsen leading to a critical situation,” all threeplaintiffs were ineligible. As a general trend, victories
in the class action suits have expanded A-bomb diseaserecognition, but strictly abiding by the requirement
to update evaluations every three years causes anincreasing number of hibakusha to be downgradedfrom the “medical special allowance” to the “special
allowance.” For newly recognized cancers, the periodof medical necessity is 10 years for breast, thyroid,

urinary tract and certain other cancers. For all others,
the period was set at five years. This ruling was ratified
by the High Court, thus supporting policies that blockprotections for hibakusha.
The plaintiffs protested saying, “This decision
runs directly counter to the positive judicial stance taken
previously regarding hibakusha assistance.”
Ms. Naito, one of the plaintiffs, expressed her
determination saying, “I want the national government tocome over to our side. This decision has broken my heart,
but with your support, we will keep trying.”-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Note added in August 2021:
Regarding the “black rain” hibakusha lawsuit, on July29, 2020 the Hiroshima District Court ruled in favorof all 84 plaintiffs. The accused, that is, the national
government, appealed, but on July 14 2021 theHiroshima Supreme Court affirmed the district court
ruling. Those who were in black rain areas should
be considered hibakusha. Like “rescue-hibakusha,”
who were exposed to radiation when they entered
Hiroshima for rescue activities, they have heightened
health risk due to radioactive fallout. According
to Hiroshima Prefecture, this ruling could apply toabout 130 thousand people. It is noteworthy that thedecision referred to the risk of “internal radiation” fromcontaminated food or water.
The government’s response to this historicdecision drew a great deal of attention, and on
July 26, 2021, Prime Minister Suga stated that the
government would not appeal the decision. Thus, all
84 plaintiffs were finally recognized as hibakusha andentitled to medial fee exemptions. This historic victory
was a major step in hibakusha litigation.
However, it should be noted that the Prime
Minister’s statement, issued the day after the ruling
was announced, made it clear that “the idea that
health effects due to internal radiation from ‘black rain’
or ingestion of food or drink should be recognized
regardless of scientific estimates of radiation dose
conflicts with the principles underlying the existing
hibakusha support system. Thus, the government
finds it unacceptable.”Towards
Towards aa Nuclear-Free
Nuclear-Free Future!
Future!

115
Addenda:Addenda: Recent
Recent Movements
Movements && Reflections
Reflections 115
Naomi TOYODA

Yuji Ohnuma stands next to the spot where a billboard used to proclaim, “Nuclear power — energy for a bright future.” He created this slogan when he was inprimary school. (In Futaba-machi on March 11, 2020)]

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections [Ⅲ]What Will Children 300 Yearsfrom Now Think?
“Recovery” — Nine Years after the Fukushima Nuclear DisasterNaomi TOYODA

Photojournalist and documentary film maker[N. Toyoda started his career by covering the Middle
East and Iraq. His exhibition, The Human Cost of Uranium
Weapons, was held around the world. Concentrating on
Fukushima after 2011, he has published many photobooks
and co-directed two films, The Will: If Only There Were No
Nuclear Power Plant (2013) and Samosely: The Will – Chapter
6 (2020), which received the 2021 Green Image Award.]

Thinking of the word “half-life,” on March 11, nine years
after the cruel nuclear accident, I turned my camera toward
TEPCO’s Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. The
exhaust towers that had sent radiation from the reactors
around the world are shorter than the first time I saw
them from the Futaba-machi beach nine years ago. That’s
because demolition began last year. However, nine years
later, not a single exhaust tower has been taken down fully.
Of the various radionuclides spewed by theexhaust towers or scattered by the hydrogen explosions,radioiodine, whose half-life is eight days, was absorbed
into the bodies of many. Even if these radionuclides have

Towards a Nuclear-Free Future!

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections 116
Naomi TOYODA

since been expelled, even if the national and prefectural
governments have yet to acknowledge the connection with
the nuclear power accident, they cannot deny the highincidence of thyroid cancer among the exposed Fukushima
children.
Cesium-137, with a half-life of 30 years, traveled
across prefectural boundaries to create more “Fukushimas”
everywhere; even now the plant spews radiation. The truthis quite the opposite of Prime Minister Abe’s insistencethat radiation from the accident is “under control.”Tetsuji Imanaka, associate professor of Kyoto
University’s former Research Reactor Institute appeared
in my film Stolen Villages — Last words of one who
returned to Chernobyl — Chapter 6. In that film, he said,“The problem of what we should do looking ahead 100,
200, 300 years, remains.”

Inconceivable levelsof Invisible contamination
Along with Dr. Jawad Ali-Ali, who came from Iraq toattend The World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima,and Haruko Moritaki and Nobuo Kazashi, a grassroots
study team who went the opposite way, from Hiroshima
to Iraq, I traveled to Basra, a city in the south of Iraq.
I remember how dumbfounded I was, trying to graspthat uranium-238 has a half-life of 4.5 billion years;
we’re talking about everlasting, eternal radioactive
contamination.
This essentially “eternal” stuff is now solidly
ensconced in Fukushima. Of course, 300 years can’t becompared to 4.5 billion years. But, considering that the
average life span of a Japanese person now is 80 years,
I dare to say that from the human perspective, 300 years
is everlasting. It is staggering, mind-boggling.
E v e n s o , t h e g o v e r n m e n t , s h r u g g i n g o ff
responsibility for the accident, under the name “recovery,”and can’t think of anything to do except put up showy
buildings barely connected to people’s lives. Walk around
Fukushima, and you’ll see everywhere fancy new facilities
built in the name of recovery, some of which are actuallyusing the recovery budget. These imposing buildings aredesigned to conceal the “difficult-to-return zones” rightbehind them.
What I learned from my nine-year research in
Fukushima was, those who live there, who have no choice
but to live there, are unable to deny the fact that there is norecovery. Recovery simply cannot happen. This onerous
reality meets their eyes wherever they may look. They tellus, “Those who were chased out of here won’t be coming
back. You can’t say that a town that people can’t return tois recovering.”
As a member of Japanese society, which was
responsible for that irredeemable tragedy, I ponder whatchildren 300 years from now will think of us. Just in casethey might wonder about us, I want to leave at least somehints about who we were. That’s why I keep making thesevisual records.

Mr. Kenichi Hasegawa, a former dairy farmer, looking at the flowers of the soba [buckwheat] he is raising instead of cattle after the nuclear accident.
(Sept. 18, 2017; Iidate-mura)［Note: On October 22, 2021 Mr. Kenichi Hasegawa passed away because of thyroid cancer at the age of 68.］

Towards
TowardsaaNuclear-Free
Nuclear-FreeFuture!
Future!

Addenda: Recent
Recent Movements
Movements && Reflections
Reflections 117
Addenda:Joseph T. Scarry„Peace Cranes on the steps of the old GPO (General Post Office) at the „Melbourne Vigil for Japan” held on March 17, 2011.
(photo: John Englart (Takver) ; CC BY-SA 2.0)

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections [Ⅳ]

To Get Back from the Brinkof the Nuclear War:
From America in the Coronavirus Crisis

Joseph T. ScarrySocial justice activist, U.S.

J. T. Scarry became a social justice activist afterworking in international trade, web application
development, and intellectual property
management. A long-time friend of N. Kazashi
and a brother of Prof. Elaine Scarry who gavea pre-event talk, Mr. Scarry attended the 2015
Forum and currently lives on Madeline Island,
WI., U.S.A.

Towards a Nuclear-Free Future!

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections 118
Joseph T. Scarry

After the Forum
When I attended the World Nuclear Victims Forum in
Hiroshima in November, 2015, I was deeply impressedby the number of people in locations throughout theworld working to shift the locus of understanding of thenuclear radiation phenomenon to its proper place: thepeople affected by it, and the ultimate goal of healthinessfor people and the environment.

“Back from the Brink of the Nuclear War”:
A Grassroots Movement around the U.S.
Of course, it is necessary to address this phenomenon
through its source, such as the states that build nuclear
weapons and threaten the world with them. My own
work in the time since visiting Hiroshima in November,
2015, has been in trying to cause the US to draw "Back
From the Brink" of nuclear war -- taking weapons off
alert, taking unilateral authority for using weapons away
for the president, and other measures.
During the same period, the world has greatly
benefited from a legal instrument - a global treaty
banning nuclear weapons. Nonetheless, nuclear weapons
states continue to push forward with more spending,more development and testing, and fewer treaty
restrictions. (In particular, the collapse of INF Treaty
in August, 2019, comes to mind.) Now, the lessonsof the 2015 Forum should be propagated even moreemphatically and widely.

Climate Crisis and Pandemic
Meanwhile, the climate crisis is also becomingpressing. Compared to five years ago, many more
people understand that there is a problem, and that it isimmediate and dire, and also that it is not just a change
in the physical characteristics of the atmosphere and theweather, but most of all has consequences for the healthand well-being of actual people - right now!
As I write, the world is responding to the
COVID-19 crisis. We are in the early days, and I fearthat the full consequences for human health and wellbeing have not yet been imagined by most people.
Nonetheless, there has already been a change in attitudes
that goes beyond the immediate crisis. Many people are
realizing that what we are experiencing right now has

implications for other threats, like the climate crisis andthe nuclear threat.
One thing people are realizing is that threats
and risks are real. We are often happy to be lulled tosleep, and to say "it can't happen here." COVID-19
has forced us to see that threats and risks affect us, too,
wherever we are. (This is especially true in today's"small" world: we are all connected.)

We Can Make Changes: “We Are All
Public Health Workers Now”
Another thing people are realizing is that we canmake changes -- including in ways that we havepreviously thought impossible -- when our well-being
is at stake. The extreme reduction in carbon emissions
during the COVID-19 response has made people realize:
we can mitigate the climate crisis if we change our waysof life, though we should not be too optimistic about
what happens after the pandemic has subsided.
Finally, people are also realizing that thelanguage or frame of "public health" is the mostcritical for working together to make the difficult
decisions and bring about the world that we all want.
This has particular importance for our work to stop
the nuclear threat. Today, people all over the world are
acting on a "precautionary principle" -- they are taking
specific steps to prevent harm to human health. Dayafter day after day, we remind ourselves, "the difficult
steps I am taking today are not to cure a sickness thathas already happened, but to prevent one." We are all
public health workers now.
I am grateful for the contribution of the World
Nuclear Victims Forum. It has helped me understandhow the specific work each of us does to end the nuclear
threat is part of a shared public health effort.

Towards
TowardsaaNuclear-Free
Nuclear-FreeFuture!
Future!

Addenda: Recent
Recent Movements
Movements && Reflections
Reflections 119
Addenda:Nobuo KAZASHI

the Arctic sea ice continuing to melt away, June 2008 (photo: Gerald Van der Leun /CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections [Ⅴ]The Messages from the World Hibakusha Forum:

Reading Anew in the Midstof the Covid-19 Pandemic
Nobuo KAZASHI

Co-Director, the World Nuclear Victims Forum[Professor emeritus of philosophy at Kobe University andvisiting professor at Dalian University of Technology from2019. After receiving a Ph.D. from Yale University, N.
Kazashi taught at Hiroshima City University till 2001. He
specializes in Japanese thought, comparative philosophy,
and peace studies. Based in Hiroshima, he has been
engaged in peace activities including ICBUW (International
Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons).]

It was in the spring of 2020, when the first “Emergency
Declaration” due to the Covid-19 pandemic was issued inJapan, that we worked intensively on editing the Japaneseversion of this document for the Forum. Reading overcarefully the records of the Forum amidst the unprecedented
pandemic, naturally I began to think about the similarities
and differences between the nuclear problem, the infectious
disease pandemic, and the climate crisis, etc.
Various global crises are the manifestation of theradical changes occurring in the nature-human relationshipdue to human activities; in a word, the present crises areconsequences of what is now called “Anthropocene.”
According to this view, the planetary environment has beentransformed greatly because of the influences exerted eversince the Industrial Revolution and we are now witnessing

Towards a Nuclear-Free Future!

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections 120
Nobuo KAZASHI

the ending of the relatively stable geological period whichlasted about ten thousand years after the last “Ice Age.”
Some scholars locate the beginning of the
Anthropocene as early as in the establishment ofagricultural and cattle-breeding society, or some others
focus on the nuclear age with the notion of “nuclear
anthropocene.” The nuclear problem must be re-grasped
as what lies at the core of a series of crises caused byhumans ourselves.
The following extracts and memos are only a smallpart of the messages from the Forum; in a word, it is a verysmall, partial digest. But I would be delighted if they canbe of some use in recalling the messages from the Forumto recosider the “Age of Crisis,” in the midst of which wefind ourselves today.
[ I ] The Nuclear Problem amidst the Waves of Crisis
The nuclear problem must be solved first andforemost so that the international society can tackle inearnest with the problems of utmost gravity in the midstof the crises surging one after another: mega earthquakes
with tsunami, abnormal weather, pandemics, etc. Asemphasized by Dr. Tilman Ruff; “Prohibiting andeliminating nuclear weapons is the most urgent existential
imperative humankind has ever faced (p.31). This means
the urgent need to divest from unnecessary fields and to
redistribute and invest finite monetary/human resources
into the most critical tasks. (See T. Ruff & A. Kawasaki)[II] Risk and Damage;Hard-to-Grasp Whole Pictures
The whole pictures of various global crises are often
hard to grasp perceptually since they often depend on
statistical estimates. Once they become real, however, theirgravity and scale can be overwhelming and extremely
difficult to deal with. In the case of nuclear damage,actual states may often be hard to grasp, not only becauseradiation is “invisible,” but also because of the politicalintentions to conceal them.
Tilman Ruff: “What is less well known is that there
have been 15 reactors where fuel damage or partial core
meltdown has occurred, in one of them twice. They have
involved civilian and military reactors of different designs
in different countries. The historic risk of core melt

accidents is one in 1300 reactor years, and twice that for
the type of reactor in Fukushima. Unfortunately, these arefar from rare or unexpected events.”
Mary Dickson: “I carry a credit card sized map of theUnited States in my wallet. ... It shows where the winds
carried radioactive fallout from testing in Nevada. Utah
and Nevada are almost completely blacked out, and theblack ink spreads as far East as New York and as far North
as Canada, ... including the region where most of ournation’s food is grown. Radiation did not respect arbitrarylines on a map. It was picked up by the jet stream andcarried across the country.... I’ve shown this map to people
around the U.S. and they’re always shocked. They had no
idea that the fallout spread so far, crossing over their cities
and towns.”
Seiichiro Takemine: “[When the Marshal Islands
became independent in 1986,] America admitted that
their nuclear tests had exposed the residents to radiationand paid about 150 million dollars as compensation. In
exchange for it, however, the nuclear problems wereregarded as completely settled, and the damage, which
extends over time and space, still remains sealed till
today.”[Ⅲ] “Science of radiation-exposure” and politics
Thanks to various researches regarding radiation
damage, new concrete expertise has been accumulating;especially understanding regarding “risk from low-level
radiation” has been renewed greatly. As both Dr. Ruff
and Dr. Tomonaga emphasized, it has been confirmed, asa result of the international joint research that analyzed
the data about 300,000 workers at nuclear plants over 70
years, that there is health risk even under 100 millisievelts
per year. But “recommended radiation dose limits havealways been lowered over time, never raised.” (T. Ruff)
Hiroaki Koide: “People say radiation can’t beperceived, but that’s because any radiation strong enoughto be perceived by any of our five human senses would
soon kill the human doing the perceiving. Hence, radiation
can’t be perceived.”
Risk evaluation of “invisible” radiation is susceptible
to various influences from interested parties. As highlighted

Towards a Nuclear-Free Future!

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections 121
Nobuo KAZASHI

by Tetsuji Imanaka, a nuclear engineering specialist
involved in research on the effects of the Chernobyl and
Fukushima accidents, it is important to distinguish three
things from each other; that is, first, “what we can say
clearly” based on sciences, secondly “what we cannot figureout well,” and thirdly “what we can consider unlikely.”
However, they often get mixed up.
This is related to the problem of “language use”;“peaceful use” of nuclear power, “monju” and “fugen”=
the names of the Wisdom Bodhisattvas used for cuttingedge nuclear reactors; “decomination,” which is actuallyjust moving around contamination (cf. H. Koide), etc.,
etc. We have to watch out much more seriously for the“fraud by language” which philosopher Shunsuke Tsurumi
called “talisman-like use of words.”(IV) WHO: Its Roles and Limitations
Regarding the Covid-19 pandemic as well, therelationship between China and WHO has been called
into question. However, it should be noted that, as Dr.
Ruff pointed out, Japanese government exerted a similarpressure on WHO immediately after the nuclear accident
in Fukushima: “The disturbing example of Japanese
government attempting to downplay Fukushima healthrisks was the reported high-level pressure on WHO to
reduce the thyroid radiation dose estimates in their report,
which they did.” (Cf. Asahi Shimbun Globe, “Fukushima
Radiation Dose Report: Pressured to Modify” Dec. 7,
2014)
Of course, organizations like WHO are indispensable
for international collaborations. But it is also undeniable
that they are under various influences. It is said that WHO
is under IAEA’s constraints regarding radiation risk
evaluation (cf. Helen Caldicott, 2011). ⅱ
Director Shriplakash appealed that IAEA held aconference in Jadugoda but they were not allowed toattend it. In the same vein, Dr. Jawad Al-Ali casted doubt
over the results of international studies regarding depleted
uranium contamination in Iraq. Referring to the words ofHelen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand &former director of U.N. Development Plan, Dr. Chumakemphasized that information transparency is the basisof every judgment and we cannot make good judgment
without solid information.
All the more because of it, however, information

Doomsday Clock (photo: Michael_swan / CC BY-ND 2.0)

becomes an object of vehement political intervention.
Mr. Kenichi Hasegawa, who used to raise livestock inFukushima till the nuclear accident occurred, said withstrong irony and criticism: “In Iitate Village [in Fukushima
Prefecture], the Ministry of Education has set up 25 or 26
monitoring posts. Every one of them shows a lower levelof radiation than I measure for myself. Isn’t that strange?...
I find the national government’s response truly terrifying.”(V) Power of Law and Treaty: High Walls of Lawsuit
Dr. Ruff and Mr. Kawasaki both highlighted theimportance of the “Humanitarian Pledge as the key inthe efforts to stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear
weapons.” Mr. Kawasaki summarized: “A ban treaty could
take any of several forms. Among the various steps toward
a nuclear-weapon-free world, the process leading to thefirst step (banning) and the process leading to the last step
(elimination) can differ in a number of ways. However,
if we are content to create a prohibition norm, the non-Towards a Nuclear-Free Future!

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections 122
Nobuo KAZASHI

nuclear states can do so without the nuclear-weapon
states.”In fact, two years after the Forum, TPNW (Treaty on
the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons) was realized. Since
then, some nuclear powers such as America and Russia areshowing actions going against the rise of such international
momentum. But the “humanitarian pledge” and the “normof prohibition” are becoming more and more important.
Arguing for a “pluralistic approach” regarding the DU
weapons problems, too, Manfred Mohr, spokesperson of
ICBUW (International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons)
and a founding member of IALANA Germany, stated that
it is necessary to bring the issue into the various legal fields
such as international humanitarian law, human rights law,and environmental law.”
At the Forum, however, many talked about the highwalls encountered by those who resorted to lawsuits.
Director Shirplakash lamented over the hard
struggles at the uranium mining sites in Jadugoda where
it is forbidden even to carry a dosimeter: “The language
used at court is different from people’s language. The gap
is so huge…. Delhi has power, but it is impossible for thepeople in Jadugoda to go to Delhi and fight at court over 5
years or 10 years…. If you lose at court, you will lose themoral right to oppose. So, we gave up on lawsuits. This is
our reality…. We cannot ask for justice from court.”
As Attorney Ohkubo highlighted its significance, in2014 the Marshal Islands filed a suit to the International
Court of Justice (ICJ) on the ground that the nuclear
powers were failing to carry out the obligation, provided in
NPT’s Article Six, “to pursue negotiations in good faith on
effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms
race at any early date.” Regrettably, however, this suit was
turned down in October 2016.
In Japan as well, many of the nuclear victim
affirmation lawsuits have been encountering various
difficulties for many years; it is only recently that most of
the so-called “black rain” victims began to be recognized
duly at court.
As for the victims in Fukushima, the situation may
be even more complicated; K. Hasegawa lamented: “It is
TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) that afflicteddamage and we are the victims, but the relationship isgetting reversed; now it feels as if the victims were toblame.”(VI) The Power of Arts and Solidarity:
Why not a Literature Museum in Hiroshima?!”
Although the situations surrounding the nuclear
victims are very severe, it was the power of arts andsolidary that people talked about passionately at theForum. Especially, M. Dickson repeatedly emphasized,
as a playwright and as a victim, the power of “individual
stories” through the Forum; she started her own speech
as follows: “In 2008, I spent two weeks in Hiroshima
and Nagasaki with the Nuclear Studies Institute from
American University. It was an amazing journey that
included visits with many Hibakusha, a word used todescribe survivors of the bomb. Their powerful stories
still haunt me.”According a recent communication from Joseph
T. Scarry, who has contributed to this Addenda his essay,“To Get Back from the Brink of the Nuclear War: From
America in the Coronavirus Crisis,” the “BlackLivesMatter”
Movement is causing self-critical re-examinations also
within the anti-nuclear movements in the U.S. We hope thatnew light will be shed on the sufferings, hitherto concealedor downplayed, of the indigenous peoples at the uranium
mines and nuclear test sites.
Various attempts through art have been carried out
for anti-nuclear and peace movements, but I find it very
unfortunate that there is no literature museum in Hiroshima
until today. In 2001 a group was started under the nameof “Citizens’ Association for A Literature Museum in
Hiroshima!,” but it had to cease its activities withoutachieving its objective due to lack of understanding on theCity’s side. ⅲ
As for literary works on radiation damage or the
nuclear age, there are too many to list, including the socalled A-bomb literature, manga Barefoot Gen, animation
movie In This Corner of the World, and plays and essays
by Oe Kenzaburo and Inoue Hisashi, etc.
Albert Camus, whose novel, The Plague [La Peste],has been read widely anew around the world after thestart of the present pandemic, denounced at the news ofHiroshima: “The mechanical civilization has just reachedits last degree of savagery”; “Undoubtedly no one, except
those blinded by unrepentant ideology, can be anything
but astonished that science, in a world tearing itself byviolence, quite out of control, indifferent to injustice andTowards a Nuclear-Free Future!

Addenda: Recent Movements & Reflections 123
Nobuo KAZASHI

the simple human happiness, should have devoted itself
to universal murder” (Editorial, The Combat, August 8,1945).
If “Hiroshima Literature Museum” is to be created,
will not Hiroshima become an even more powerful andappealing place of “art and solidarity”? It is bizarre that
there is no literature museum in Hiroshima while there
are many of them around Japan.ⅳ(VII) For One World, One Health:Japan’s Missions
At the Forum Ashish Birulee appealed, as aphotographer, about the appauling situation at theuranium mining sites in his home village in Jadugoda,
India. But it was in 2002 that Mr. Birulee was invited
to come to Hiroshima as a student; then a nuclear war
threat was being heightened between India and Pakistan.
Reflecting on those days, Mr. Birulee said: “I didn’t knowmuch about radiation. I didn’t know well about what’s
happening in Jadugoda, either. But, coming here, I learned
that this problem is a serious, global problem.”
However, he also added: “Looking at today’s Japan,
I see that nuclear plants are starting again to operate....
Witnessing these behaviors, people of India are feeling
dilemmas, not knowing whether we should go against
nuclear power or support it.”Akira Kawasaki, a leading member of ICAN andPeace Boat, condemns Japan’s stance in a straightforward
way: “Japan has suffered an attack with nuclear weapons.
Opinions differ on its claim to be the only one, but it
is certainly the only country that has actually suffereda nuclear bombing in war. For this victim of nuclear
weapons to say, “The nuclear weapon states say this, thenon-nuclear states say that, and we stand between them,”is ridiculous. When even states that have never suffered anuclear attack push for genuine progress toward a nuclearweapon-free world, Japan must take an unequivocal
stand.”The ideal of “O ne World, O ne H ealth” ⅴ
proposes, from the viewpoint of infection prevention,
to grasp “humans, cattle, wild animals, and the naturalenvironment” as a whole. Naturally it applies also to
the nuclear problems, or it should be considered an
ideal to be grasped with the nuclear problem as its
essential part.

With the pandemic still raging and the abnormal
climate aggravating, humankind is facing literally an
unprecedentedly critical phase where its existence isat stake, and it would not be possible to get through it
without radical transformation of our forms of life. It goes
without saying: the nuclear problem is what Japan should
contribute to more than anything else.
[Translated by the author]

Sphere Within Sphere. A statue by Italian sculptor, Arnaldo Pomodoro, installed at the U.N. Plaza in New York. (photo: Friar’s Balsam/ CC BY 2.0)---------------------------------------------------------------------------ⅰⅱ

Kazashi, N. (2021) “Thaumazein at the Nuclear Anthropocene: The Lifeand Thought of Takagi Jinzaburo as a Citizen Scientist.” In Philosophy andGlobal Affairs, Vol.I-1, March 2021.
Caldicott, Helen. (2011) “How Nuclear Apologists Mislead the World over
Radiation,” The Guardian, April 11, 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/
environment/2011/apr/11/nuclear-apologists-radiation
Caldicott states: “After 1959, WHO made no more statements on healthand radioactivity. What happened? On 28 May 1959, at the 12th World
Health Assembly, WHO drew up an agreement with the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); clause 12.40 of this agreement says:"Whenever either organisation [the WHO or the IAEA] proposes to initiate
a programme or activity on a subject in which the other organisation has or
may have a substantial interest, the first party shall consult the other witha view to adjusting the matter by mutual agreement." In other words, theWHO grants the right of prior approval over any research it might undertakeor report on to the IAEA.”
Now the group continues as “Association for Preservation of Literary
Materials in Hiroshima.”
ⅳ Cf. ”LinguaHiroshima,” a multi-lingual site where you can search materials
related to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has been open since 2019. https://www.
linguahiroshima.com/jp/
ⅴ Wildlife Conservation Society, 2004; http://www.oneworldonehealth.org
ⅲAfterword for the Online English Version

November 2021

This is the online English version of the record of the World
Nuclear Victims Forum held in Hiroshima November 21-23 2015.
The full Japanese version was published under the title of Towards
a Nuclear-Free World! in August 2020.
We would like to thank deeply the Nuclear-Free WorldFoundation for their generous support in translating some of theJapanese presentations into English and for providing the website
for this briefer English version.
Also, we would like to express our special gratitude to
Mr. Steven L. Leeper (representative, Peace Culture Village),
Ms Elizabeth Baldwin, and Ms Miwako Sawada for theircollaboration in the English translation; most of the Japanesepresentations were translated by them, except where indicatedotherwise. Our special gratitude goes also to Mr. Kazuma Suzuki
of Shift Project for his wonderful layout as usual.
This online version contains most of the presentations
except the discussions and greetings. (Some presentations are notavailable in English yet for some reasons, but we hope not only to
upload more files as they become available, but also to publish a
printed brochure version soon. We ask your continued support forour project.

Nobuo Kazashi & Tomoko Watanabe
On behalf of the English Translation Project,
The World Nuclear Victims Forum Executive Committee

Please click here to go back to the program