A-bomb Survivor Defends Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

A-bomb survivor defends Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution

Tokyo―On November 13, Kazuto Yoshida, who survived the 1945 atomic bombing in Nagasaki told Waseda University students how it is significant to maintain the pacifist article of the Japanese Constitution that renounces war as a means to resolve any international conflicts at this crucial moment and in the following ages. He spoke out against the tide of those right-wing Japanese who have been attempting to revise the Article 9 to become a “normal nation” with a strong military build-up in recent years.

Yoshida explained how wartime Japanese society without Article 9 was terrible. He asked, “Can you guess the average lifespan of Japanese citizens during the war?” Students whispered. He said the average lifespan of the wartime Japanese men and women was 23.9 and 37.5 respectively. Almost all educational facilities, including science rooms of his middle school, were used for military purposes. He said, even though he’s also a hibakusha, the hibakusha who know the most horrible aspects of war are those who died or were incinerated on August 6 and 9, 1945.

Against Yoshida and thousands of hibakusha’s will to see a day when all the rampant nuclear weapons are gone during their lifetime, nuclear powers still cling to nuclear defense, deterrence, and even preemptive system. According to Yoshida, 243,692 hibakusha were alive as of March 31, 2008, and 92 percent of hibakusha who live in Suginami district, Tokyo, are fearful that a nuclear weapon can be used again, looking at the status quo of the world.

“What I want from the US government is an apology for the conduct of a-bombings in 1945 and its initiative role in abolishing nuclear weapons. That’s all,” he said. With regard to the issue of nuclear proliferation, Yoshida emphasized that movements for reduction of the number of nuclear weapons is not enough, but a shift toward eradiation of nuclear arms and war is important. “There had been three nuclear weapons in 1945 before the bombing. One was used to test in New Mexico, the second was used against Hiroshima citizens, and the very last one was dropped on Nagasaki. This means only one nuclear weapon can kill tens of thousands of people,” he said.

Yoshida also criticized the Japanese government for still clinging to the wartime policy that justifies the past and does not facilitate war compensation to the victims both home and in neighboring countries. Although there are many hibakusha who have been afflicted with cancers and other diseases triggered by radiation, the Japanese government has refused to provide enough aid and held on to the allegedly scientific standard proposed by the Department of Health. The government has lost all the trials brought by Hibakusha nationwide in the past few years so far.

Yoshida concluded the speech as following:
“We’ve asked the world ‘No more Nagasaki, no more Hiroshima, and no more war’ since we came to stand up in the 50s. I as a hibakusha would like to ask you, who are to live in the 21st century to take over this task and keep demanding abolition of all existing nuclear weapons and wars.”

The event was held by members of Article 9 Committee of Waseda University and ‘No More Hibakusha’ Article 9 Association. The Article 9 Association was founded by famous Japanese intellectuals, including Kenzaburo Oe, the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature winner; Shunsuke Tsurumi, a pragmatist philosopher who graduated from Harvard University in 1942; and many more individuals with prominent academic backgrounds who have advocated for peace, now standing up to contest reemergence of Japanese militarism. It was 2002 that this organization was born, and today there are about 7,000 grassroots committees of the Article 9 Association all over Japan. According to the latest poll of Yomiuri Shimbun, or one of the most conservative newspapers with the largest readership in Japan, more than half of the Japanese people are against revising Article 9. When more than two-thirds of politicians in the Diet agree on the revision, Japanese citizens exercise referendum to determine the future. The future is in hibakusha and students’ hands.

For more information about the Article 9, please visit http://www.article-9.org/en/index.html.
http://www.9-jo.jp/en/index_en.html

Fumi Inoue (I currently study at the School of International Liberal Studies of Waseda University located in Japan.)