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Opinion

Hiroshima Memo: Nuclear Free Local Authorities in Japan should promote a non-nuclear policy by pressing the Japanese government

by Akira Tashiro, Executive Director of the Hiroshima Peace Media Center

“No Euroshima!”

This slogan was chanted by people who took to the streets in the early 1980s when the antinuclear movement was in full swing in Western Europe, including in the former West Germany. The protesters were expressing their opposition to the attempt by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to deploy Pershing II nuclear-tipped missiles made in the United States and cruise missiles to counter the former Soviet Union’s deployment of SS-20 ballistic missiles in Eastern Europe.

“If everything is left up to our governments, nuclear war will break out,” they felt. “Citizens and local authorities should work together to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone, where no nuclear arsenals are allowed to be deployed.” Stirred by this sense of crisis, the city council of Manchester, England, took a stand and, in November 1980, became the first municipality in the United Kingdom to declare itself “nuclear-free.” After that, spearheaded by the U.K., the nuclear-free zone movement spread to other parts of the European continent.

Five years ago, in 2004, I had a chance to visit Manchester City Council Town Hall, where the historic resolution was made. A red metal plaque, 30 centimeters across and bearing the words “Nuclear Free Zone” is displayed in the lobby of the stone Town Hall building. “These words serve as our source of energy in promoting the antinuclear movement,” the person in charge of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities steering committee said proudly.

The Nuclear Free Local Authorities movement in Europe also spread to Japan. In 1982, Fuchu-cho in Hiroshima Prefecture and Tsushima-shi in Aichi Prefecture became among the first Nuclear Free Local Authorities in Japan. At the time, I visited several such locales to cover this story, including a small town in the mountains of Tokushima Prefecture, where the town council had just signed a “Nuclear-free and Peace Declaration.” Everywhere I went, I felt the people’s enthusiasm for this idea.

Today the Nuclear Free Zone Authorities in Japan are said to total nearly 1,500, covering 80 percent of the municipalities in the country. If these municipalities, though, had taken more active measures toward eliminating nuclear weapons and renouncing war, and had pressed the central government to enshrine its three non-nuclear principles into law, a substantial impact could surely have been made on Japan’s security policy so the nation would not continue to rely on the U.S. nuclear umbrella for protection.

U.S. President Barack Obama has called for “a world without nuclear weapons.” Under his administration, a review of the nation’s nuclear stance, which is required by Congress to set the future course of U.S. nuclear policy, will be made. One focal point is that the Japanese government and Ministry of Foreign Affairs is opposed to a dramatic reduction in nuclear arms or a “declaration of no first use,” which they believe would undermine the strength of the nuclear umbrella and precipitate national crises, including agitation from a nuclear-armed North Korea.

The U.S. "Nuclear Posture Review" will be completed this year. Many of those involved in the military and in the decision-making process of the U.S. government are attempting to discourage Mr. Obama’s forward-looking policy, saying, “We cannot ignore our allies’ requests to strengthen the nuclear umbrella.” Meanwhile, the nuclear policy scholars and antinuclear citizens’ groups in the United States have upped their criticism of Japan, arguing that Japan, the only nation to have suffered nuclear attack, has become an obstacle to nuclear disarmament and abolition.

I urge that the Nuclear Free Local Authorities in Japan work together in pressing the Japanese government to support a declaration of no first use, which is an effective means of promoting nuclear disarmament. If these municipalities sit by and do little about the Japanese government impeding the way toward the nuclear-free world called for by Mr. Obama, their need to enact nuclear-free declarations will be thought dubious.

In 1988, in Europe, where the “No Euroshima” campaign was staged, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) was concluded between the United States and the former Soviet Union. This outcome resulted from the momentum of the antinuclear movement and became an important step toward nuclear disarmament. In Japan, revitalization of the active engagement by local authorities and citizens for the disarmament and abolition of nuclear weapons is now imperative.

(Originally published on August 3, 2009)

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