Congratulation for Anti-nuclear Campaign

As an only suffered country in the world from devastation of nuclear war, Japan congratulates awarding of an international anti-nuclear organization for Nobel Peace Prize of this year. Newspapers in Japan raised large headline on the front page on Saturday that reported Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to award International Campaign to Abolishment Nuclear Weapons for the prize. One entity in Japan that was not delighted with the news was the government of Japan that refused to join the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty.

ICAN was established in Austria in 2007, based on International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. It has 468 partners in 101 countries, including Peace Boat in Japan. Campaigning for illegalization and abolishment of nuclear weapons, ICAN contributed to the passing of Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons this July, which became the first legally binding international agreement for prohibition of nuclear weapons.

Norwegian Nobel Committee praised ICAN “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequence of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.” Quoting North Korea as a country that modernizing and procuring nuclear weapons, the committee warned that nuclear weapons posed constant threat to humanity and all life on earth. “The coalition has been a driving force in prevailing upon the world’s nations to pledge to cooperate with all relevant stakeholders in efforts to stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons,” said the committee.

Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization is one of the major contributors to the campaign. The sufferers of atomic bombing in Hiroshima or Nagasaki have been positively joining ICAN events in everywhere for discussing inhumanity of nuclear weapons. President of the confederation, Terumi Tanaka, said, “I am happy on the awarding of the organization for abolishment of nuclear weapons. It will encourage the movement of the sufferers.”

Asahi Shimbun accuses Japanese government of not issuing a comment on the awarding. Asahi quoted anonymous comment of an officer with Ministry for Foreign Affairs that differentiated Japan actually facing the threat of North Korea from others far away from it. Well, Japan needs to be more ambitious for banning nuclear weapons, if it suffered from actual threat. Standing by one side, Japanese government insists on the necessary for closing the gap between both sides.