By HIROKI TOHDA/ Correspondent
November 28, 2023 at 18:14 JST
Sueichi Kido, secretary general of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers Organizations, speaks at the second meeting of states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Nov. 27. (Hiroki Tohda)
NEW YORK--Japan did not attend the second meeting of states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that opened at the United Nations headquarters here on Nov. 27.
The treaty bans the possession, use and development of nuclear weapons.
Russia has been threatening to use nuclear weapons while continuing its aggression against Ukraine, and there have been other developments that run counter to nuclear disarmament.
Amid such circumstances, the participants will discuss concrete ways to realize a world without nuclear weapons during the five-day meeting running until Dec. 1.
From Japan, hibakusha atomic bomb survivors and the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are participating in the meeting, but the Japanese government has decided not to participate in the conference as an observer, as it also did not last year.
Sueichi Kido, 83, secretary-general of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations and a survivor of the Nagasaki atomic bombing, delivered a speech at the meeting.
“The danger of nuclear war is growing,” he said. “The scenes reported from Ukraine and Gaza are a replay of that day for the hibakusha. If there is a nuclear war, there will be nothing left but black cities, piles of corpses and a world of death.”
According to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), 97 states have signed or ratified the treaty.
One of the focuses of the meeting is how to get more states to sign.
Germany, Belgium and Norway--members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)--are participating in the meeting as observers, as they also did last year.
The United States, Russia, China, Britain and France--all nuclear powers opposed to the treaty--did not participate in the meeting for the second consecutive time.
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