Photo/Illutration Beatrice Fihn, left, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), discusses the issue of nuclear weapons with participants of a forum in Vienna on June 18. (Gakushi Fujiwara)

VIENNA--Advocates of a nuclear-free world expressed fears here that a nuclear war was fast in danger of becoming a reality due to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to use the weapons in his invasion of Ukraine and called on the international community to urgently address the issue.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) hosted a citizens forum on nuclear issues on June 18 ahead of the first meeting of signatories to the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) to be held in Vienna from June 21 to 23.

The ICAN was a driving force behind the U.N. treaty, which was adopted in 2017, and landed the group the Nobel Peace Prize the same year for the role it played in making that happen.

The forums on June 18 and June 19 featured dozens of guest speakers who tackled as many as 40 themes. The forums were the first to be held since the last one in 2014.

“The world has really changed a lot since the last time we were together,” said Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the ICAN, at a session on June 18. “Things, believe it or not, got worse.”

Referring to Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, she said, “Our work became more urgent and more needed than ever.”

Putin has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons since the war started.

The TPNW, which went into force in January 2021, prohibits the use and threat of use of nuclear weapons in addition to their development, production, testing and stockpiling.

More than 50 Japanese citizens, including hibakusha atomic bomb survivors, traveled to Vienna, about 9,000 kilometers from Japan, to have their voices heard. Most of an international brigade of reporters covering the first meeting of state parties to the treaty are Japanese.

But government officials of Japan, the only country to have experienced the horrors of atomic warfare, will not attend the meeting.

Germany and Norway, two NATO nations, will take part as observers. On June 18, the ICAN announced that two other NATO nations--the Netherlands and Belgium--will also be present at the meeting as observers, along with Australia.

Sueichi Kido, 82, who survived the Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombing of Nagasaki and serves as secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo, a nationwide organization for atomic bombing survivors, said to applause at the forum that the treaty is what the survivors and their supporters had long wanted to see.

Kido also expressed hopes that the meeting will discuss how to expand support to victims.

Suzuka Nakamura, a 22-year-old from Nagasaki whose grandmother was exposed to nuclear radiation, said, “Young generations like me and other descendants of atomic bomb victims see our role as sharing with the world afresh the dangers of nuclear weapons.”

Sixty-two countries and regions have ratified the treaty to date.

But the nuclear powers, including the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, and countries that rely on them for their security, are dismissive of the treaty.

At the meeting from June 21, state parties to the treaty will discuss how to dispose of nuclear weapons, how verification procedures should be conducted and what support can be given to victims.

(This article was written by Mami Okada, Tabito Fukutomi and Gakushi Fujiwara.)

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