Setsuko Thurlow criticizes G7 leaders saying it is intolerable to affirm nuclear weapons in the A-bombed city
May 21, 2023
by Yumi Kanazaki, Staff Writer
On May 20, Setsuko Thurlow, 91, an A-bomb survivor living in Canada, agreed to an interview with the Chugoku Shimbun in Hiroshima City over the Hiroshima Vision on Nuclear Disarmament compiled by the summit meeting of the G7 (Group of Seven industrialized nations). Ms. Thurlow, who has temporarily returned to her hometown, criticized the document saying, “It is intolerable to disseminate a message from the A-bombed city, which only affirms nuclear arms for one’s own country, but condemns the weapons of other nations in conflict.”
Even before she returned to Japan, she paid attention to policy recommendations composed by civil society groups involved in the G7 Summit, which requested they work in cooperation with the states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. “Prime Minister Fumio Kishida received the recommendations directly, but they are not included in the Hiroshima Vision at all. Citizens’ voices are not being heard,” Ms. Thurlow said, expressing her resentment.
She also questioned the G7 leaders’ visit to Peace Memorial Park (Naka Ward), where she had appealed to them as human beings to face the objects left behind by the A-bomb victims and The Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims. “I can’t feel the heartbeat or temperature of the leaders from the wording of the documents. Can we really say the visit to Hiroshima was meaningful if they say nothing publicly about what they saw and felt there?” she said.
Although she approves of some of the language on nuclear non-proliferation, she said definitely that most of the document is "just a reiteration of what the countries have been saying for a long time. As long as they try to affirm nuclear weapons, we cannot come up with new proposals that will lead to their elimination.”
(Originally published on May 21, 2023)
On May 20, Setsuko Thurlow, 91, an A-bomb survivor living in Canada, agreed to an interview with the Chugoku Shimbun in Hiroshima City over the Hiroshima Vision on Nuclear Disarmament compiled by the summit meeting of the G7 (Group of Seven industrialized nations). Ms. Thurlow, who has temporarily returned to her hometown, criticized the document saying, “It is intolerable to disseminate a message from the A-bombed city, which only affirms nuclear arms for one’s own country, but condemns the weapons of other nations in conflict.”
Even before she returned to Japan, she paid attention to policy recommendations composed by civil society groups involved in the G7 Summit, which requested they work in cooperation with the states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. “Prime Minister Fumio Kishida received the recommendations directly, but they are not included in the Hiroshima Vision at all. Citizens’ voices are not being heard,” Ms. Thurlow said, expressing her resentment.
She also questioned the G7 leaders’ visit to Peace Memorial Park (Naka Ward), where she had appealed to them as human beings to face the objects left behind by the A-bomb victims and The Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims. “I can’t feel the heartbeat or temperature of the leaders from the wording of the documents. Can we really say the visit to Hiroshima was meaningful if they say nothing publicly about what they saw and felt there?” she said.
Although she approves of some of the language on nuclear non-proliferation, she said definitely that most of the document is "just a reiteration of what the countries have been saying for a long time. As long as they try to affirm nuclear weapons, we cannot come up with new proposals that will lead to their elimination.”
(Originally published on May 21, 2023)
