Opening Plenary, August 72023 World Conference against A and H Bombs - Nagasaki

Joseph Gerson
Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security
U.S.A.

Friends,
It is a privilege to rejoin the World Conference after the pandemic years.
Given the increasingly dangerous great power confrontations, accelerating nuclear
arms races, and assaults on the U.N. Charter our collaborations are more important
than ever.
I have just come from Korea, where like Taiwan, an accident or miscalculation
could trigger escalation to nuclear war. Across Northeast Asia all parties to theregion’s tensions have first strike doctrines, including Japan’s conventional
preemptive strike capacity with U.S. cruise missiles. Indian-Pakistani tensions
continue apace, and there’s France, Britain, and Iran’s nuclear program.
Following in the U.S. tradition of preparing and threatening to initiate nuclear
war, Putin and Medvedev are rattling their nuclear sabers. And, with its conventional
military inferiorities, Russian will increasingly rely on its nuclear arsenal for years tocome.
Elsewhere, the U.S., Japan, and their allies are massively increasing theirmilitary spending, increasing the danger of war and sacrificing spending for humanneeds. The U.S. is upgrading and replacing its nuclear arsenal and its first strikedelivery systems. A U.S. nuclear armed submarine just returned to South Korea after
40 years, and new U.S. nuclear weapons are being deployed in Europe. After Bush II1

and Trump assaulted the world’s arms control architecture by withdrawing from theABM and INF treaties, Moscow put the last nails in the arms control coffin bysuspending New START. And refusing to be intimidated by the U.S., China isincreasing its nuclear arsenal, dangerously preparing to achieve parity with the U.Sand Russia.
This takes place in the context of Biden’s National Security Strategy whichstates that: “the post-Cold War era is definitely over, and competition is underway
between the major powers to shape what comes next.” The continuing belief that“America is the indispensable nation” fuels self-defeating policies and dangerous
actions including seeking Russia’s strategic defeat in Ukraine and sending warships
through the Taiwan Strait.
Biden’s Security Strategy names the “China threat” as “the only competitor
with both the intent to reshape the international order and increasingly theeconomic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it.” It names China as
the “pacing threat” driving U.S. military planning. Biden’s cohort understand thatthey can no longer enforce U.S. hegemony without integrating their allies’ military,economic and technological resources. They encouraged Japan to double its militaryspending, consolidated the QUAD and AUKUS alliances, and are pressing Tokyo andSeoul to build a tripartite alliance. And NATO names containing China as an Alliancepriority.
China hasn’t stood still, doubling its nuclear arsenal and has a navy larger than
the 7th fleet. There are the warplanes sent across the Taiwan Strait’s median line andthe warships and planes active in the East China Sea.

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I have thought about how my grandson would hear my references to theexistential dangers of war, nuclear war, and the climate emergency. Let me close withhope. “There are cracks in everything/that’s how the light gets in.”
Our movements to create a nuclear weapons-free world, to defend democracy,

create a sustainable environment, to stop the killing in Ukraine, and pressing for essential
Common Security diplomacy are all cracks in the systems that threaten us. To expand thecracks, and defend civilization and people’s lives we need to continue teaching the lessons ofHiroshima and Nagasaki and celebrate the extraordinary courage of Hibakusha who haveprovided humanity the gift of their searing testimonies that eviscerate the illogic of nuclear
deterrence. And we need to support and expand the influence of the TPNW. With ourcombined efforts we can expect more governments to ratify the Treaty and bring someumbrella states to the 2nd Meeting of States Parties.

People debate if there is sound when a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it.
Our responsibility is to ensure that there will be sound and powerful reverberations
to end and prevent wars and to prepare the way for a nuclear weapons-free world.
Preparing for the TPNW’s 2nd meeting in November, representatives of more than 20
organizations have been meeting to coordinate activities there. We look forward tohosting our Japanese and other partners there as we demand creation of the nuclear
weapons-free world we need and deserve. I hope to see many of you there as we let
the light in by broadening the cracks in the nuclear annihilation system.

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