At ICAN Academy, young people make presentations and exchange ideas on abolition of nuclear weapons
Nov. 13, 2022
by Kyosuke Mizukawa, Senior Staff Writer
ICAN Academy, held by Hiroshima Prefecture and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a non-governmental organization (NGO), is a course for young people from Japan and abroad to experience the reality of the atomic bombing and think about what security should be like. On November 12, ICAN Academy’s presentation event was held at Gojinsha Wendy Hito-Machi Plaza in the city’s Naka Ward. Young people from 20 countries, including five nuclear superpowers, attended the course. They exchanged ideas on a path to the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Twenty-four people from 15 countries, including the nuclear weapons states of the United States, China, and France, participated in the course that began in Hiroshima on November 9, and five people from five countries such as Russia and the United Kingdom participated online. November 12 was the final day. They were divided into three groups and discussed measures for the abolition of nuclear weapons to compile their opinions.
One group, which gave a presentation titled “Sowing the seeds for peace,” made an appeal that citizens’ power was important for nuclear disarmament and proposed various cities support the activities of Mayors for Peace (for which Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui serves as president) aiming for the abolition of nuclear weapons. The other two groups called for deeper discussions of nuclear disarmament and consideration of the dangers of security through nuclear deterrence at the summit meeting of the G7 (Group of Seven industrialized nations) to be held in Hiroshima in May 2023.
The course has been held every year since 2019. This is the fourth time it has been held. The participants toured the Peace Memorial Museum, located in Naka Ward, and talked with A-bomb survivors, as well as visited the Chugoku Shimbun building on November 11. Yumi Kanazaki, the director for the Hiroshima Peace Media Center, explained the history and perspective of the company, where 114 people, one-third of its employees, had been killed in the A-bombing and its attempts to translate articles into English, Russia, and other languages and disseminate them to the world.
Angie Sohn, 22, a senior at Colby College in the U.S., who visited Hiroshima for the first time, said that she had realized how tragic nuclear weapons were through the exhibitions at the Peace Memorial Museum and the accounts of A-bomb survivors and that more people should come to Hiroshima to learn about the nuclear abolition.
(Originally published on November 13, 2022)
ICAN Academy, held by Hiroshima Prefecture and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a non-governmental organization (NGO), is a course for young people from Japan and abroad to experience the reality of the atomic bombing and think about what security should be like. On November 12, ICAN Academy’s presentation event was held at Gojinsha Wendy Hito-Machi Plaza in the city’s Naka Ward. Young people from 20 countries, including five nuclear superpowers, attended the course. They exchanged ideas on a path to the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Twenty-four people from 15 countries, including the nuclear weapons states of the United States, China, and France, participated in the course that began in Hiroshima on November 9, and five people from five countries such as Russia and the United Kingdom participated online. November 12 was the final day. They were divided into three groups and discussed measures for the abolition of nuclear weapons to compile their opinions.
One group, which gave a presentation titled “Sowing the seeds for peace,” made an appeal that citizens’ power was important for nuclear disarmament and proposed various cities support the activities of Mayors for Peace (for which Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui serves as president) aiming for the abolition of nuclear weapons. The other two groups called for deeper discussions of nuclear disarmament and consideration of the dangers of security through nuclear deterrence at the summit meeting of the G7 (Group of Seven industrialized nations) to be held in Hiroshima in May 2023.
The course has been held every year since 2019. This is the fourth time it has been held. The participants toured the Peace Memorial Museum, located in Naka Ward, and talked with A-bomb survivors, as well as visited the Chugoku Shimbun building on November 11. Yumi Kanazaki, the director for the Hiroshima Peace Media Center, explained the history and perspective of the company, where 114 people, one-third of its employees, had been killed in the A-bombing and its attempts to translate articles into English, Russia, and other languages and disseminate them to the world.
Angie Sohn, 22, a senior at Colby College in the U.S., who visited Hiroshima for the first time, said that she had realized how tragic nuclear weapons were through the exhibitions at the Peace Memorial Museum and the accounts of A-bomb survivors and that more people should come to Hiroshima to learn about the nuclear abolition.
(Originally published on November 13, 2022)
