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Youth Summit held under umbrella of IPPNW World Congress

by Rie Nii, Staff Writer

On August 25, the second day of the World Congress of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a Youth Summit was held at the International Conference Center Hiroshima. Following speeches given by seven students from the United States, India, and other nations, high school students and university students from home and abroad engaged in discussion.

Madina Smailkanova, 17, from Semey, Kazakhstan, is currently studying at Sanyo Girls’ Senior High School in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture. She told the audience that more than 450 nuclear tests were conducted between 1949 and 1989 at the former Soviet Union’s nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk [the old name for the city of Semey] and went on to explain how a citizens’ movement led to the closure of the site. “There are people still suffering because of the damage caused by radiation,” she said. “Let’s learn from Semey, Hiroshima, and Fukushima and share what we know with others.”

Lia Curvelo Rolim Rodrigues, 16, from Brazil, stated that, in order to realize peace in the world, it is important for everyone to learn from each other instead of promoting the idea of adapting to a competitive society.

Following the speeches, the students formed ten groups, with six to twelve in each group, and engaged in discussion on nuclear weapons and power. After a question-and-answer session, a summary was made by Mako Ando, 17, the chairperson of the summit and a third-year student at Hiroshima Jogakuin High School. “The atom is a global issue,” Ms. Ando said. “Through our own efforts, we hope to help solve the problem of eliminating both nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants.”

(Originally published on August 26, 2012)

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