Setsuko Thurlow sends letter to Prime Minister Kishida, urging leadership on issue of nuclear weapons abolition
Mar. 8, 2022
by Hiromi Morita, Staff Writer
On March 7, Setsuko Thurlow, 90, an A-bomb survivor who resides in Canada, sent a letter to Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida urging him to exercise leadership on the issue of the abolition of nuclear weapons. On behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Ms. Thurlow delivered a speech at the 2017 Nobel Prize award ceremonies, at which ICAN was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Amid tensions resulting from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s suggestion of the country’s use of nuclear weapons following Russia’s military intrusion into Ukraine, Ms. Thurlow stressed in her letter that, as someone who experienced the horror of the atomic bombing firsthand, she would never forgive Mr. Putin’s threats of the use of nuclear weapons. She called on Mr. Kishida to vociferously declare that the use and threat of use of nuclear weapons were thoroughly unacceptable and to communicate that message throughout the world.
Ms. Thurlow has criticized the fact that a subset of Japan’s politicians has seemed to take advantage of the current situation to demand that the so-called policy of ‘nuclear sharing’ be debated. “The proposal means that Japan would be joining in on the nuclear weapons strategy of the United States,” she wrote. Upon learning that Mr. Kishida denied out of hand any such debate from the perspective of strict adherence to Japan’s three non-nuclear principles, Ms. Thurlow described her relief, adding that it was necessary to enhance international legal frameworks to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.
Moreover, she wrote, “Actions taken by the A-bombed nation of Japan hold the key to the realization of enhancement of such legal frameworks,” in a call for Japan to participate in the First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), with the aim of clearly enunciating Japan’s stance on the issue.
(Originally published on March 8, 2022)
On March 7, Setsuko Thurlow, 90, an A-bomb survivor who resides in Canada, sent a letter to Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida urging him to exercise leadership on the issue of the abolition of nuclear weapons. On behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Ms. Thurlow delivered a speech at the 2017 Nobel Prize award ceremonies, at which ICAN was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Amid tensions resulting from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s suggestion of the country’s use of nuclear weapons following Russia’s military intrusion into Ukraine, Ms. Thurlow stressed in her letter that, as someone who experienced the horror of the atomic bombing firsthand, she would never forgive Mr. Putin’s threats of the use of nuclear weapons. She called on Mr. Kishida to vociferously declare that the use and threat of use of nuclear weapons were thoroughly unacceptable and to communicate that message throughout the world.
Ms. Thurlow has criticized the fact that a subset of Japan’s politicians has seemed to take advantage of the current situation to demand that the so-called policy of ‘nuclear sharing’ be debated. “The proposal means that Japan would be joining in on the nuclear weapons strategy of the United States,” she wrote. Upon learning that Mr. Kishida denied out of hand any such debate from the perspective of strict adherence to Japan’s three non-nuclear principles, Ms. Thurlow described her relief, adding that it was necessary to enhance international legal frameworks to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.
Moreover, she wrote, “Actions taken by the A-bombed nation of Japan hold the key to the realization of enhancement of such legal frameworks,” in a call for Japan to participate in the First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), with the aim of clearly enunciating Japan’s stance on the issue.
(Originally published on March 8, 2022)
