2023-05-19 21:00:00
G7 leaders listening to an explanation from Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui at Peace Memorial Park. In the back is the Atomic Bomb Dome in Naka Ward, Hiroshima City (representative photo)
On the 19th, the leaders of the seven industrialized nations (G7) visited Hiroshima, the site of the atomic bombing, for the first time in history, and toured the Atomic Bomb Museum. However, the state of the inspection was completely closed to the public, and the Japanese government did not allow media coverage inside the museum, and took a stance of not revealing the details of the exhibits that the leaders and others saw. Consideration for the United States, Britain, and France, which possess nuclear weapons, stood out. (Atsushi Kawada, Shintaro Soda)
Mr. Obama was 10 minutes
“Let the G7 leaders see the reality of the atomic bombings.” Since Prime Minister Fumio Kishida decided to hold the summit in Hiroshima last year, it has been repeated many times.
I have an experience seven years ago in my mind. When then US President Barack Obama visited Hiroshima for the first time as an incumbent president, the prime minister acted as a guide as Foreign Minister. It was a historic event when the president of the side that dropped the atomic bomb delivered a speech in the city where the atomic bomb was dropped, appealing for the pursuit of “a world without nuclear weapons” and hugging the hibakusha. However, my stay at the Atomic Bomb Museum was limited to 10 minutes in the entrance lobby of the East Building, where the entrance is located, and I only saw a few items in the museum’s collection, including paper cranes.
At the Hiroshima summit, I thought it was necessary to put “the realities of the atomic bombing” as the theme of the inspection, and to have people look at the exhibits in the main building where they might feel the most, such as photographs and belongings of the victims.
“Sensitive issues” U.S. and France cautious
However, coordination with each country is difficult. According to foreign ministry officials, the United States and France were particularly cautious.
In January, France announced the framework of its medium-term defense plan, which positions nuclear weapons as the “keystone of defense.” President Macron has strengthened his commitment to nuclear deterrence, saying, “Never before has deterrence been so necessary.” A Japanese government official believes that focusing too much on the “negative” aspects of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima contradicts the stance of strengthening deterrence.
In the case of the United States, it is said that there is a deep-rooted domestic opinion that the atomic bombing was necessary to end the war. If President Biden thoroughly inspects the museum, he may be criticized for being reflected domestically, and a senior Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said, “The US side does not want to show the state of the tour.It is a sensitive issue. ” leaks out.
Due to a last-minute adjustment, the Japanese government ended up not revealing how the G7 leaders went around the building and how they went to the main building. His stay was 40 minutes, longer than Obama’s, but the prime minister did not explain the details to reporters on the night of the 19th, saying, “In the process of preparation, it was decided to keep it private.” The meetings between the G7 leaders and the hibakusha inside the museum were also closed to the public, and even if they were to touch on the reality of the atomic bombings, their dissemination was restrained.
Kazuhiro Maejima, a professor of U.S. politics and diplomacy at Sophia University, said in an interview, “I think it’s amazing that the G7 leaders visited the main building, but it should be made public, including whether they went to the main building. This is an opportunity to appeal for a world without nuclear weapons. It was unfortunate,” he said. He analyzes that “the difficulty of not putting nuclear abolition at the top of the G7’s list of priorities has led to this half-hearted effort.”
Growing nuclear threat around the world
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hopes to use the G7 Hiroshima Summit as an opportunity to foster momentum toward a world without nuclear weapons, but the reality is that the movement toward nuclear disarmament and the elimination of nuclear weapons is not only slowing down, it is going in the opposite direction.
According to the Stockholm Institute for International Peace, as of January 2022, the world’s nine nuclear-weapon states will have a total of 12,705 nuclear warheads. Russia tops the list with 5,977, followed by the United States with 5,428, accounting for nearly 90% of the world total.
The post-Cold War U.S.-Russia nuclear disarmament negotiations cut the number of nuclear weapons to less than 20,000 in 2012, but the rate of decline has slowed in recent years. The U.S. and Russia will continue to modernize their nuclear arsenal and continue to develop “usable nuclear weapons” with reduced explosive power.
Russia was excluded from the G8 following its 2014 annexation of Crimea, and now that it has invaded Ukraine, it has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons. In East Asia, China is expected to increase its nuclear arsenal to 1,500 by 2035, and there are no signs of even reaching the table for nuclear disarmament. North Korea is also promoting nuclear and missile development. In the Middle East, Iran is developing nuclear weapons. The nuclear threat is growing.
A-bomb survivors “in the exact opposite direction of nuclear disarmament”
The prime minister calls for rebuilding the credibility of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which promises nuclear disarmament to the nuclear-weapon states. However, four of the nine nuclear-armed states, including North Korea, which has unilaterally announced its withdrawal from the treaty, are not part of the NPT.
Furthermore, the stagnation of nuclear disarmament has been criticized by non-weapon states, and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which aims to completely outlaw and eliminate nuclear weapons, came into force, but the states that do possess them objected. Japan, which relies on the US’ “nuclear umbrella,” is also not participating.
Shigeaki Mori, 86, an A-bomb survivor from Hiroshima who embraced Obama during his first visit to Hiroshima as an incumbent U.S. president seven years ago, said, “I expected progress in nuclear disarmament, but things have gone in exactly the opposite direction. I am disappointed. He has a growing sense of crisis, saying, “There is even an atmosphere in which the United States will oppose Russia and say, ‘We will also threaten them with nuclear weapons.’ We must do something now.”
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