United States Still Covers Up the Damage Caused By the Atomic Bombings

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Terumi Tanaka, former associate professor of the engineering faculty of Tohoku University, anti-war and nuclear weapons activist, general secretary of the Co-chair of the Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo).

The survivor of the nuclear attack in Nagasaki, who was 13 years old at the time of the attack and suffered many injuries, lost his grandfather, two uncles, an aunt and a nephew in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. He is a supporter of nuclear disarmament and believes that the use of nuclear weapons is not justified in any way. He asked the U.S. to apologize for the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On the occasion of the anniversary of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism had an interview with Mr. Terumi Tanaka, which follows.

1. Please introduce yourself and provide information about the activities of your organization.

Born in April 1932, I am a survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. I was exposed to the bomb on 9 August 1945 in a two-story wooden house about 3.2km from the hypocenter.
I currently serve as a Co-chair of the Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo). Nihon Hidankyo, formed in 1956, is the only national organization of A-bomb survivors, having its branches in all 47 prefectures of Japan.
The Japanese government has renounced its right to claim compensation for the atomic bombings, which were a violation of international law. We demand state compensation for the damage caused by the atomic bombings, and call for the establishment and enhancement of a system of relief measures for the damage caused to Hibakusha’s health and livelihood. In addition, we are engaged in international activities aimed at achieving a world without nuclear weapons and war. As a registered UN NGO, we use a variety of methods to testify before the UN about the inhumanity of nuclear weapons.

❞We demand state compensation for the damage caused by the atomic bombings, and call for the establishment and enhancement of a system of relief measures for the damage caused to Hibakusha’s health and livelihood ❝

2. What plans does your organization have for achieving a world full of peace and free of any destructive and prohibited weapons? Please explain about it if you have a positive experience in this field.

The Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) was formed in 1956. For seven years after the bombings, the occupation forces covered up the damage caused by the atomic bombings, and the Japanese government after independence

❞For seven years after the bombings, the occupation forces covered up the damage caused by the atomic bombings ❝

abandoned the victims for the next three years. As a result, the victims of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who had emigrated to other parts of Japan after the bombings, were prevented for 12 years from coming together to speak out on their own and to seek solutions.

❞We pledged that “we would save ourselves as well as the humankind” from its crisis by making known our A-bomb experiences to the world ❝

At Nihon Hidankyo’s founding meeting, we pledged that “we would save ourselves as well as the humankind from its crisis by making known our A-bomb experiences to the world” and that we would engage in campaigns to ban the testing and use of nuclear weapons and achieve their abolition. This commitment has continued till today as the movement, 65 years after Hidankyo’s formation, and contributed to the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017 and the entry into force of the Treaty in 2021.
Through a variety of means, including the following examples, we have clearly denounced the inhumanity of the damage caused by the atomic bombings and contributed to the campaigns by citizens, organizations, governments and the UN to ban nuclear weapons.

(1) We have issued 120,000 photo booklets and distributed them at various gatherings around the world.
(2) Since 2005, we have held an A-bomb exhibition in the lobby of the UN General Assembly Hall during the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference held every five years. The exhibition was scheduled to be held in 2020, but had to be postponed due to the Corona disaster.

(3) In 1985, we sent representatives to the governments of the five nuclear weapon states to urge them to give up their nuclear weapons.
(4) We sent representatives of nearly 40 hibakusha to each of the three UN Special Session on Disarmament (SSD I (1978), II (1982) and III (1988)), and together with representatives of other NGOs, we requested the UN representatives of each country to abolish nuclear weapons.
(5) We participated in the World Court Project (WCP), submitted 3 million signatures to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and contributed to achieving the Court’s advisory opinion that the threat and use of nuclear weapons is generally illegal.

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3. A few months ago, in a statement, you protested against the US nuclear tests and asked them to hear the voice of the world in prohibition and abolishing nuclear weapons. Do you think they heard that voice? If not, what is the problem?

Nihon Hidankyo has issued a communique or statement in protest every time the US conducts a subcritical nuclear test at an underground nuclear test site. However, the US government does not seem to be listening to us. The U.S. has signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), but has yet to ratify it due to opposition in the Senate. This is one of the reasons why the CTBT has not entered into force and therefore justifies its own underground subcritical nuclear tests.

❞Nihon Hidankyo has issued a communique or statement in protest every time the US conducts a subcritical nuclear test at an underground nuclear test site ❝

❞U.S. justifies its own underground subcritical nuclear tests. ❝

4. According to Ms. Izumi Nakamitsu “the Conference on Disarmament has been in stalemate for the past 20-plus years.” How can we get the world out of this stalemate?

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) discussed and sought to achieve the early entry into force of the CTBT and adopt the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT). However, with the indefinite extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1995, the countries participating in the CD waited and see how the NPT Review Conferences and the implementation of the bilateral treaty between the US and Russia (the New START) would go, and seemed to neglect the discussion at the CD. As the New START is due to expire soon, the U.S. and Russia are expected to make diplomatic efforts to extend the treaty.

Substantive debate on the reduction of nuclear weapons is entrusted to the framework of the NPT. The NPT is made up of the three pillars: nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and peaceful use of nuclear energy. The non-nuclear weapon states of the NPT have urged the nuclear weapon states to sincerely implement Article 6 of the treaty and the nuclear weapon states agreed to do so. But the U.S. and Russia, the two nuclear superpowers together possessing 90% of existing nuclear arsenals were interested only in the reduction of their nuclear arms based on the bilateral new START. The non-nuclear weapons states raised their anger at the two superpowers’ nonaction and the other nuclear weapon states’ indifference to the issue. Since 2010, majority of the world governments and people have recognized the inhumanity of nuclear weapons and campaigned to make the prohibition of these weapons as a new norm, no final document was adopted at the 2015 NPT Review Conference. Frustrated at this situation, non-nuclear weapon states moved to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the U.N. in 2017, with the support of 122 countries. After achieving the ratification by 50 countries, the TPNW entered into force in January 2021.
However, recent growth of China’s nuclear forces and U.K.’s decision to increase the number of nuclear warheads are causing renewed tension among nuclear powers.
Building on the entry into force of the TPNW, Nihon Hidankyo is working to mobilize public opinion in the nuclear weapon states and their allies that continue to adopt nuclear deterrence policy. The myth of nuclear deterrence theory should be defeated and inhuman nuclear weapons must be clearly made illegal. We must develop political actions in these countries to change their nuclear policies. Without changing the policies of the nuclear-armed states, we cannot achieve the complete prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons.

❞Since 2010, majority of the world governments and people have recognized the inhumanity of nuclear weapons and campaigned to make the prohibition of these weapons as a new norm ❝

❞The myth of nuclear deterrence theory should be defeated and inhuman nuclear weapons must be clearly made illegal ❝

❞. Without changing the policies of the nuclear-armed states, we cannot achieve the complete prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons ❝

5. The tragedy of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki seems to be a historical background in justifying the concept of terrorism in favor of the United States since then. How can this process and double standard policy be reformed?

At least prior to WWI, the use of violence with a political agenda in war and the killing of combatants was internationally accepted to the extent permitted by customary international law. However, at the end of WWI and during WWII, the destructive power of weapons and their technology of killing increased both in quality and quantity. The inhuman consequences of the atomic bombs used at the end of WWII in Hiroshima and Nagasaki became the greatest instrument of deprivation of human rights to deny human life. Nuclear weapons have shown themselves to be completely different from previous weapons quantitatively and qualitatively. This is undeniable for weapons that use uranium or plutonium as their energy source. Therefore, the US, which wishes to maintain nuclear weapons at least as weapons of intimidation, will not recognize them as weapons that violate international humanitarian law or any other international law. It continues to conceal the quality of the harm and damage caused by nuclear weapons on all fronts and adheres to a double standard.

❞. The inhuman consequences of the atomic bombs used at the end of WWII in Hiroshima and Nagasaki became the greatest instrument of deprivation of human rights to deny human life ❝

The TPNW explicitly rendered nuclear weapons illegal. During the process of the adoption of the Treaty, in the deliberations at the International Court of Justice for its advisory opinion and at the international conferences on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons held in the 2010s, the anti-human nature of nuclear weapons was demonstrated clearly in concrete manners.

❞The US, which wishes to maintain nuclear weapons at least as weapons of intimidation, will not recognize them as weapons that violate international humanitarian law or any other international law. It continues to conceal the quality of the harm and damage caused by nuclear weapons on all fronts and adheres to a double standard. ❝

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It is vital that the truth about the inhumane damage caused by nuclear weapons is further revealed. It is largely unknown to the nuclear weapon states and deterrence advocates, as well as to nuclear policy makers (military scientists, politicians and military officers). In fact, the fact that so many Americans are unaware and uninformed is the main reason why the US accepts nuclear weapons. The tragedy of a nuclear attack is often talked about in a too abstract way.
The US government has covered up as much of the damage caused in Hiroshima and Nagasaki as possible, and continues to do so today. Just recently, it was revealed that the results of a study of the residual radiation from the fallout of the Nagasaki bomb on human body and life had been concealed by the US. The governments of the US, Russia and other countries do not recognize the illegality of the nuclear deterrence and the use of nuclear weapons. The victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki must demand that these governments reveal the full truth about the “damage caused by the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki” to their people who believe that their governments’ nuclear policies are correct.

❞The US government has covered up as much of the damage caused in Hiroshima and Nagasaki as possible, and continues to do so today ❝

❞The victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki must demand that these governments reveal the full truth about the “damage caused by the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki” to their people who believe that their governments’ nuclear policies are correct. ❝

6. Your Excellency, in 2009 stated about Barack Obama’s visit to Japan “we welcome the visit, but it is difficult to accept it without an apology. We want the United States to apologize, but they refused.” How can one make the criminals regret and apologize for such heinous acts?

President Obama did not visit Hiroshima until April 2016, so the comment quoted here is likely a summary of some of my comments in response to President Obama’s speech of 2009 in Prague. Nihon Hidankyo has never sought reparations from the US government for its culpability. However, we have demanded an apology for the enormous damage caused against humanity, and has requested that this be demonstrated by the abolition of US nuclear arsenals.

“We have demanded an apology for the enormous damage caused against humanity, and has requested that this be demonstrated by the abolition of US nuclear arsenals. ❝

“To date, the US Congress, too, has shown no intention to offer any apology to the victims of the atomic bombing. ❝

To date, the US Congress, too, has shown no intention to offer any apology to the victims of the atomic bombing. In Prague, President Obama referred to the “moral responsibility” to act “as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon”. However, in his remarks at Hiroshima Peace Memorial, he seemed to have cautiously avoided using any words that might be interpreted as apology.
In my opinion, there has always been a tacit understanding that acts of war can involve the taking of human life by combatants. Wars between nations are not denied, except in the case of Kellogg-Briand Pact. It was also tacitly understood that it was the combatants who would do the fighting. However, as the scale of warfare became more widespread and civilian casualties increased, international humanitarian law, customary wartime law and other international treaties were enacted. Whether an act is heinous or criminal must be determined by legal norms. Since an “apology” has strong moral implications, those who are guilty of crimes will have to be tried for violations of international law and treaties.
As long as nuclear weapons are concerned, we must seek all governments in the world to sign and ratify the treaty to become states parties to the treaty.
Since World War I, and especially in World War II, there have been many civilian casualties and even deliberate attacks were made on citizens, who were regarded as civilian reserves. The destruction of cities by the US Air Force at the end of the Pacific War was a typical example of this, and in its ultimate form, nuclear energy was used in combat against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of people with a single nuclear warhead and destroying a city of 300,000 people in an instant.
I have come to believe that war between nations can easily lead to nuclear war, and that the idea of settling disputes between nations by war has been rejected in the 21st century.

“In Obama’s remarks at Hiroshima Peace Memorial, he seemed to have cautiously avoided using any words that might be interpreted as apology. ❝

“Whether an act is heinous or criminal must be determined by legal norms ❝

“Since an “apology” has strong moral implications, those who are guilty of crimes will have to be tried for violations of international law and treaties. ❝

“I believe that settling disputes between nations by war has been rejected in the 21st century. ❝

United States Still Covers Up the Damage Caused By the Atomic Bombings