Interview with antinuclear activist Kumar Sundaram: Sympathy with Hiroshima is basis of action
Apr. 7, 2015
by Seiji Shitakubo, Editorial Writer
The late Ichiro Moritaki, a leading figure of the antinuclear movement in Hiroshima, would stress that the human race cannot coexist with nuclear weapons or nuclear power. Today, his message is being spread by a man in faraway India. Kumar Sundaram, 34, is a senior researcher at the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), a local citizens’ group. Mr. Sundaram studied nuclear disarmament at a university in Delhi and wrote a thesis on the A-bomb survivors’ movement. During his visit to Japan to take part in the UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, the Chugoku Shimbun interviewed Mr. Sundaram about current conditions in India, a nation which possesses nuclear weapons and is planning to build more nuclear reactors, and what role he hopes Japan will play.
Why do you sympathize with Mr. Moritaki’s words?
His message is the basis for my beliefs on nuclear abolition and nuclear power. When the group of the Hiroshima World Peace Mission came to India 10 years ago, I volunteered to serve as an interpreter because I had studied in Japan. I was moved by the survivors’ accounts and their passion for peace.
The experience made an impact on your life. Yes. In my postgraduate course, I focused on nuclear disarmament and wrote a thesis on the A-bomb survivors’ movement in Hiroshima and the peace movement in postwar Japan. What impressed me was the survivors’ attitude. They conveyed the importance of nuclear disarmament instead of calling for retaliation. It is the opposite of what is happening between India and Pakistan. The confrontation between these neighboring countries is escalating, and they even hint at the use of nuclear weapons.
What activities are you engaged in now?
The CNDP has been taking the lead in activities around India to oppose nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. This movement began with the nuclear test conducted in 1998. Scholars and peace activists around the country held rallies to protest the test. Inspired by the late Mahatma Gandhi, the activists have taken a non-violent approach, and many are women. I joined four years ago when the opposition to nuclear power became widespread in India after the accident at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima.
You went to Fukushima during this visit to Japan. Even four years after the accident, many people are still forced to live as evacuees. I heard people lament that the national government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company have not provided sufficient compensation. Japan has advanced industries and science, and it still couldn’t control its nuclear reactors. If India had the same accident, it would wreak greater havoc, since the country’s public administration and society are not as well developed.
Did the March 11 nuclear accident bring about any changes in the Indian government’s nuclear energy policy?
No. The government is still rushing ahead with its plans to construct more nuclear power plants, supposedly to cope with the increasing population. There are 21 nuclear reactors now, but the government plans to double this number in the future. In 1948, only one year after India became independent from the United Kingdom, the government established the atomic energy commission, seeing nuclear energy as a national undertaking on the path toward becoming a great country. India carried out the two nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998 for the same reason.
How did the general public react?
The movement opposing nuclear power grew stronger after the accident at the Fukushima plant. When Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, visited India in January 2014, there was a large demonstration with people carrying a banner that read, “We welcome Mr. Abe, but we do not need nuclear power plants.” But the majority of the Indian people don’t know the reality of Fukushima.
Why is it?
Because the minister in charge of nuclear energy held a press conference right after the accident and explained that it was just a chemical accident. The government also brands antinuclear activists as “abnormal” and sends psychologists to areas where the movement is strong to provide “counseling.” They are manipulating public opinion.
Japan and India are negotiating a nuclear energy agreement so that Japan can provide nuclear energy technology to India. This is a matter of grave concern. India is not a signatory to either the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) or the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. If they reprocess spent nuclear fuel, they could obtain plutonium, which can be used to make nuclear weapons. At the time of the general election last year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (India People’s Party) led by the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested it might change the policy of “no first use” of nuclear weapons.
The NPT Review Conference will open soon in the United States. Japan will call for nuclear non-proliferation. Then it should naturally abandon its plan to export nuclear power plants to India. Among other nations, if Japan, which experienced the A-bomb attacks, gives its support to India, which is a non-signatory, the NPT will be further weakened and become little more than an empty promise. What we need is not nuclear energy but renewable energy technology. Japan has a responsibility to stop the nuclear threat from spreading further.
Profile
Kumar Sundaram
Born in Bihar, a state in northern India, Mr. Sundaram came to Japan in 2000, sponsored by the Japan Foundation, and studied Japanese at the Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute in Kansai. After returning to India, he attended Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University and completed a master’s program at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Currently, he is pursuing his Ph.D., specializing in international studies. He assumed his current post as a senior researcher at the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace in August 2011. He now resides in New Delhi.
(Originally published on April 1, 2015)
The late Ichiro Moritaki, a leading figure of the antinuclear movement in Hiroshima, would stress that the human race cannot coexist with nuclear weapons or nuclear power. Today, his message is being spread by a man in faraway India. Kumar Sundaram, 34, is a senior researcher at the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), a local citizens’ group. Mr. Sundaram studied nuclear disarmament at a university in Delhi and wrote a thesis on the A-bomb survivors’ movement. During his visit to Japan to take part in the UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, the Chugoku Shimbun interviewed Mr. Sundaram about current conditions in India, a nation which possesses nuclear weapons and is planning to build more nuclear reactors, and what role he hopes Japan will play.
Why do you sympathize with Mr. Moritaki’s words?
His message is the basis for my beliefs on nuclear abolition and nuclear power. When the group of the Hiroshima World Peace Mission came to India 10 years ago, I volunteered to serve as an interpreter because I had studied in Japan. I was moved by the survivors’ accounts and their passion for peace.
The experience made an impact on your life. Yes. In my postgraduate course, I focused on nuclear disarmament and wrote a thesis on the A-bomb survivors’ movement in Hiroshima and the peace movement in postwar Japan. What impressed me was the survivors’ attitude. They conveyed the importance of nuclear disarmament instead of calling for retaliation. It is the opposite of what is happening between India and Pakistan. The confrontation between these neighboring countries is escalating, and they even hint at the use of nuclear weapons.
What activities are you engaged in now?
The CNDP has been taking the lead in activities around India to oppose nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. This movement began with the nuclear test conducted in 1998. Scholars and peace activists around the country held rallies to protest the test. Inspired by the late Mahatma Gandhi, the activists have taken a non-violent approach, and many are women. I joined four years ago when the opposition to nuclear power became widespread in India after the accident at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima.
You went to Fukushima during this visit to Japan. Even four years after the accident, many people are still forced to live as evacuees. I heard people lament that the national government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company have not provided sufficient compensation. Japan has advanced industries and science, and it still couldn’t control its nuclear reactors. If India had the same accident, it would wreak greater havoc, since the country’s public administration and society are not as well developed.
Did the March 11 nuclear accident bring about any changes in the Indian government’s nuclear energy policy?
No. The government is still rushing ahead with its plans to construct more nuclear power plants, supposedly to cope with the increasing population. There are 21 nuclear reactors now, but the government plans to double this number in the future. In 1948, only one year after India became independent from the United Kingdom, the government established the atomic energy commission, seeing nuclear energy as a national undertaking on the path toward becoming a great country. India carried out the two nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998 for the same reason.
How did the general public react?
The movement opposing nuclear power grew stronger after the accident at the Fukushima plant. When Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, visited India in January 2014, there was a large demonstration with people carrying a banner that read, “We welcome Mr. Abe, but we do not need nuclear power plants.” But the majority of the Indian people don’t know the reality of Fukushima.
Why is it?
Because the minister in charge of nuclear energy held a press conference right after the accident and explained that it was just a chemical accident. The government also brands antinuclear activists as “abnormal” and sends psychologists to areas where the movement is strong to provide “counseling.” They are manipulating public opinion.
Japan and India are negotiating a nuclear energy agreement so that Japan can provide nuclear energy technology to India. This is a matter of grave concern. India is not a signatory to either the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) or the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. If they reprocess spent nuclear fuel, they could obtain plutonium, which can be used to make nuclear weapons. At the time of the general election last year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (India People’s Party) led by the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested it might change the policy of “no first use” of nuclear weapons.
The NPT Review Conference will open soon in the United States. Japan will call for nuclear non-proliferation. Then it should naturally abandon its plan to export nuclear power plants to India. Among other nations, if Japan, which experienced the A-bomb attacks, gives its support to India, which is a non-signatory, the NPT will be further weakened and become little more than an empty promise. What we need is not nuclear energy but renewable energy technology. Japan has a responsibility to stop the nuclear threat from spreading further.
Profile
Kumar Sundaram
Born in Bihar, a state in northern India, Mr. Sundaram came to Japan in 2000, sponsored by the Japan Foundation, and studied Japanese at the Japan Foundation Japanese-Language Institute in Kansai. After returning to India, he attended Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University and completed a master’s program at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Currently, he is pursuing his Ph.D., specializing in international studies. He assumed his current post as a senior researcher at the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace in August 2011. He now resides in New Delhi.
(Originally published on April 1, 2015)
