Youth in Hiroshima and Kazakhstan join forces in signature drive for nuclear abolition
Nov. 9, 2012
by Sakiko Masuda, Staff Writer
CANVaS, a Hiroshima-based youth group engaged in exchange activities with the people of Kazakhstan, has been gathering signatures in Japan to solicit support for the elimination of nuclear weapons. This effort is being made in cooperation with a Kazakh organization called the Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement. Through a collaboration of two locations that have suffered nuclear damage, they seek to help create a world without nuclear arms. The Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement plans to submit the collected signatures at the United Nations at the end of this year.
The Hiroshima group’s participation came about during a study tour by CANVaS to Kazakhstan this past August and September. When Takayuki Koasano, 33, the CANVaS leader, visited the headquarters of the Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement, located in the southern city of Almaty, an official of the organization asked Mr. Koasano to join the project, saying, “I hope that young people in Hiroshima will join forces with us.”
CANVaS agreed to spearhead the signature drive in Japan. About 20 members of the group, including university students, have been gathering signatures, with a goal of 1,000 signatures by the end of this year.
Mai Nikami, 19, a resident of Nishi Ward, Hiroshima, is a member of CANVaS and a second-year student at Hiroshima Shudo University. Ms. Nikami has asked for signatures between classes and during club activities, among other opportunities. “We share the wish that there will be no more hibakusha [radiation sufferers],” she said. “I’ll do my best, together with the people of Kazakhstan.”
Riho Takahashi, 20, a resident of Higashihiroshima and also a second-year student at Hiroshima Shudo University, commented, “I hope that the signature drive leads to a big push for nuclear abolition.”
The Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement began collecting signatures in 2011, the 20th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. The organization said that it has already amassed about 500,000 signatures from the youth and other citizens of Kazakhstan.
Mr. Koasano, originally from Asakita Ward, Hiroshima and currently living in Tokyo, said, “By engaging in cooperative activities which transcend national boundaries, I would like to convey the threat of nuclear weapons to the world.”
Keywords
Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement
The Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement is an anti-nuclear organization based in Kazakhstan. Headquartered in Almaty, the former capital of the nation, the organization has branch offices in such countries as Russia, Israel, and Italy. The organization was founded in February 1989, when the former Soviet Union still held sway and radioactive gas leaked into the ground as a result of an underground nuclear test conducted at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan. Pressure exerted by the Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement and other activists was instrumental in the closure of the nuclear test site in 1991. Olzhas Suleimenov, a poet and the Kazakh ambassador to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), serves as president.
(Originally published on November 5, 2012)
CANVaS, a Hiroshima-based youth group engaged in exchange activities with the people of Kazakhstan, has been gathering signatures in Japan to solicit support for the elimination of nuclear weapons. This effort is being made in cooperation with a Kazakh organization called the Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement. Through a collaboration of two locations that have suffered nuclear damage, they seek to help create a world without nuclear arms. The Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement plans to submit the collected signatures at the United Nations at the end of this year.
The Hiroshima group’s participation came about during a study tour by CANVaS to Kazakhstan this past August and September. When Takayuki Koasano, 33, the CANVaS leader, visited the headquarters of the Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement, located in the southern city of Almaty, an official of the organization asked Mr. Koasano to join the project, saying, “I hope that young people in Hiroshima will join forces with us.”
CANVaS agreed to spearhead the signature drive in Japan. About 20 members of the group, including university students, have been gathering signatures, with a goal of 1,000 signatures by the end of this year.
Mai Nikami, 19, a resident of Nishi Ward, Hiroshima, is a member of CANVaS and a second-year student at Hiroshima Shudo University. Ms. Nikami has asked for signatures between classes and during club activities, among other opportunities. “We share the wish that there will be no more hibakusha [radiation sufferers],” she said. “I’ll do my best, together with the people of Kazakhstan.”
Riho Takahashi, 20, a resident of Higashihiroshima and also a second-year student at Hiroshima Shudo University, commented, “I hope that the signature drive leads to a big push for nuclear abolition.”
The Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement began collecting signatures in 2011, the 20th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. The organization said that it has already amassed about 500,000 signatures from the youth and other citizens of Kazakhstan.
Mr. Koasano, originally from Asakita Ward, Hiroshima and currently living in Tokyo, said, “By engaging in cooperative activities which transcend national boundaries, I would like to convey the threat of nuclear weapons to the world.”
Keywords
Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement
The Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement is an anti-nuclear organization based in Kazakhstan. Headquartered in Almaty, the former capital of the nation, the organization has branch offices in such countries as Russia, Israel, and Italy. The organization was founded in February 1989, when the former Soviet Union still held sway and radioactive gas leaked into the ground as a result of an underground nuclear test conducted at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan. Pressure exerted by the Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement and other activists was instrumental in the closure of the nuclear test site in 1991. Olzhas Suleimenov, a poet and the Kazakh ambassador to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), serves as president.
(Originally published on November 5, 2012)
