2023 World Conference against A and H Bombs
International Meeting -- Opening Session
Greetings on behalf of the Organizing Committee
NOGUCHI Kunikazu
Steering Committee Co-Chairperson
Organizing Committee of the World Conference against A & H Bombs

Welcome to friends participating in the 2023 World Conference against A and H
Bombs, either in person or online. I bring you warm greetings of solidarity on behalfof the organizers.
This World Conference is taking place from August 4 through 9 under the main
theme: “With the Hibakusha, Let Us Achieve a Nuclear Weapon-free, Peaceful andJust World – for the Future of the Humankind and Our Planet”. This year’s World
Conference involves a mixture of in-person and online attendees. I want to share thepleasure of having a larger number of delegates than last year in the A-bombed citiesof Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
We have a representative from the United Nations, who is striving at the forefront ofthe effort to promote the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, along withgovernment representatives from Austria, Mexico, and Malaysia. Hibakusha from theRepublic of Korea are with us here. Also present are activists from the ROK, who areendeavoring to make the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free and build a peace regime
there, and from the Asia-Pacific peace movement. From Europe and North America,
representatives of the peace movement and dedicated grassroots people are here.
They are activists who are playing significant roles in the frontline of the effort in thecampaign to eliminate nuclear weapons. We have a representative of the Ukrainian
peace movement, which is fighting in extremely difficult conditions against theaggressors. Japanese delegates include Hibakusha, municipality heads fromHiroshima and Nagasaki; people who are devoting themselves to collecting
signatures to urge the Japanese government to sign and ratify the TPNW; people
who are opposing the Kishida government’s arms buildup policy and the adverse
revision of the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution; people who are leading
the movements to get the US military bases out, to end nuclear power, to resolve theclimate crisis, to overcome economic inequality and poverty and to achieve genderequality. People who have been affected by the 2011 great earthquake and tsunami
in northeastern Japan and by the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi plant arealso joining us.
1

The average age of the Hibakusha, who hold the hibakusha certificate, is now 85.01
as of the end of March 2023, exceeding age 85 for the first time. Last year, thenumber of surviving Hibakusha dropped to below 120,000 for the first time, to118,935. Today, the number has fallen by 5,300 to 113,649. As Hibakusha are furtherageing, the number is projected to be below 110,000 a year later. We pay our sincere
respect to the Hibakusha for carrying on the effort to make the inhumane nature ofnuclear weapons known to people. I hope they will take good care of themselves.
In May, the World Health Organization (WHO) lifted the Public Health Emergency ofInternational Concern for COVID-19. During the 39 months of global emergency
declaration, the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world, hitting particularly the poor
population, migrants, refugees, and indigenous people hardest.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimates the amountof global military expenditure in 2022 at a record 2 trillion 239.8 billion dollars. What
we have learned from the pandemic is that arms buildup is helpless in preventing
COVID-19 infections. Globally, 768 million people got infected with the coronavirus
and 6.95 million people died. At a time when the COVID-19 deals a heavy blow to theworld, it’s surprising that the nuclear weapon states led by the United States, Russia,China, Britain and France are continuing to reinforce their arsenal just as they did
during the Cold War era. The nuclear weapon states should realize that measures toimprove people’s livelihoods, employment, healthcare and welfare services andeducation are hampered by the growing military expenditure, including money for themodernization of nuclear weapons. If the money and human resources used forresearch and development for military purposes is redirected to non-militaryspending, our livelihoods would be improved drastically.
The Russian aggression against Ukraine is a crime in violation of the United Nations
Charter and international humanitarian law. On February 23 this year, the United
Nations General Assembly held a special emergency session and adopted aresolution titled “Principles of the Charter of the United Nations underlying acomprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine” with 141 countries voting in favor.
It demanded Russia’s immediate withdrawal from Ukraine and called for ending thewar and making diplomatic efforts to achieve comprehensive, just and lasting peacein Ukraine in line with the UN Charter. Following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s
announcement of a plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, the UN
Security Council met for an emergency session on March 31. Many Security Council
members denounced the Russian announcement as an act of increasing the risk ofnuclear war in violation of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). We strongly
demand that (1) Russia and the other nuclear weapon countries refrain from2

deploying nuclear weapons outside their countries and that (2) they remove nuclear
weapons they have deployed outside of their countries as soon as possible.
It is a matter of grave concern that the Putin government is repeatedly threatening touse nuclear weapons against governments and people that are throwing theirsupport behind Ukraine. The TPNW bans the use or threat to use nuclear weapons.
The Putin government’s threat to use nuclear weapons reaffirms the danger of thenuclear deterrence doctrine and tells us that the only guarantee for humankind toevade the calamity caused by the use of nuclear weapons is the prohibition andelimination of nuclear weapons.
As of June 2023, there are 12,520 nuclear warheads in the world, including 3,800
deployed in operational status and half of them are ready to be launched within minutes.
Over the last 78 years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nonuclear weapons have been used. It is said that’s not because nuclear deterrence hasworked but just because luck has been on the side of our movement calling for a ban
on nuclear weapons. At the NPT Review Conference in August last year, UN
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “… luck is not a strategy. Nor is it a shieldfrom geopolitical tensions boiling over into nuclear conflict.” In the highly
computerized nuclear weapons systems today, even in the absence of willingness tofight, unintended nuclear explosion or nuclear war could occur due to computer
malfunction or breakdown. The risk of cyberattacks is growing. Even the limited use ofsmall nuclear weapons could cause climate change or trigger global hunger, which
threatens the survival of humankind. This is what scientists have warned over the last
40 years. We no longer can leave the security of the humanity to luck.
Faced with the gravest risk of nuclear weapons being used since the Cuban Missile
Crisis in October 1962, many countries are seriously seeking for actions to abolishnuclear weapons. But the Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio’s government is pushingahead with major arms buildup policy by taking advantage of the Russian invasion ofUkraine and the crisis in Northeast Asia. Last December, his Cabinet adopted threenational security-related policy documents, including the “National Security Strategy.”
The “National Security Strategy” calls for Japan’s possession of the ability to attack
enemy bases, which means acquiring the capability to attack enemy territories. It
also states that Japan should increase its military expenditure to 43 trillion yen overthe next five years, from 2023 through 2027. That’s up 50 percent from the current
five-year plan. This Cabinet decision will pave the way for reversing Japan’s defense
policy established after World War II based on Article 9 of the Constitution pledging
an exclusively defensive stance that the country will not become a military power.
How outrageous it is for the government to decide such major defense policy change3

at the Cabinet level, without asking for electoral judgment or without explaining it tothe people!
Leaders of the Group of Seven met in May in Hiroshima. They adopted “G7Hiroshima Leaders’ Communique” and “G7 Leaders’ Hiroshima Vision on Nuclear
Disarmament” to reaffirm that achieving a world without nuclear weapons is the“ultimate goal,” postponing the task to an indefinite future. While calling on Russia
and China to implement their obligations of Article VI of the NPT, the G7 leaders are
justifying their own nuclear weapons, saying that they should “serve defensivepurposes” and that they “deter aggression” and “prevent war and coercion”. TheTPNW has already been signed by 92 countries and ratified by 68 countries, adding
to its normative force as an international treaty. It is appalling that the G7 Summit
documents failed to refer to the TPNW at all, even though 70 percent of the people ofJapan are calling on the government to sign and ratify the treaty. The limitations ofthe G7 summit, which consists of the United States, its allies and NATO members,
are so clear.
The first session of the preparatory committee for the 11th NPT Review Conferenceis underway from July 31 through August 11 in Vienna. Representatives from theJapan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo) and the Japan Confederation ofA-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Hidankyo) are participating in thispreparatory committee session. They are working to build international opinion
pressing the nuclear weapon states and nuclear-dependent countries to implement
the agreements made so far, including the NPT’s Article VI obligation to eliminate
nuclear weapons and the “unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear weapon States toaccomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals leading to nuclear
disarmament.”
The 78th Session of the UN General Assembly will be held in September. The
second meeting of the States Parties to the TPNW is scheduled in November in New
York. The United Nations, governments around the world, and grassroots civil society
are called upon to energetically promote their joint actions.
The real driving force of international politics does not come from a few great powers
but from governments and grassroots civil society of the majority countries. Raisingpublic awareness and people’s movement in each country is important. Let us stop
the Russian aggression against Ukraine and restore the peace order based on theUN Charter. To redirect military budgets to the efforts to make people happy andachieve a peaceful, just and sustainable world, let us drastically increase global
solidarity and joint activities.

4Finally, I hereby declare the start of the “Peace Wave” actions, which the Organizing
Committee of the World Conference has called on the world to carry out. The Peace
Wave actions are launched today from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as the world-wide
grass-roots joint actions with the common aim of achieving the elimination of nuclear
weapons, circling around the globe from August 4 to August 9. These actions will
convey the voices of the grass-roots people, saying, “Don’t use nuclear weapons”,
and “Keep the promise to achieve a ‘world without nuclear weapons’”, focusing on
the 1st Preparatory Committee of the next NPT Review Conference now meeting inVienna. Here in Japan, a variety of actions will take place across the country,including the exhibitions of A-bomb photos and paintings by high school students ofHiroshima, signature collections and street actions, meetings to hear the testimoniesof Hibakusha. Dear friends across the country and from around the world, let us
develop the Peace Wave actions for the prevention of the use and the elimination ofnuclear weapons.
I conclude my speech on behalf of the organizers by expressing hope that we will
make this World Conference a milestone in our effort to build great common action
and launch concrete plans to further accelerate the trend toward banning andeliminating nuclear weapons, making the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free and building
a peace regime, and to urge the Japanese government to join the TPNW and let theConstitution guide diplomacy for peace.

5