2013 World Conference against A & H bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

While my friends from the International Fellowship of Reconciliation Austria and other organizations commemorated publicly the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings on August 6 in Vienna (see article below) , I spent two weeks in Japan taking part in an international conference and visiting the sites where the most inhuman bombs were dropped in 1945 by the US military.

Jessica Herz makes a speech in the name of all the youth at the closing plenary of the 2013 World Conference against A & H bombs in Nagasaki on August 9, 2013.

I have been invited by the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Gensuikyo) to attend the 2013 World Conference against A & H bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which has been taking place for many years every August on occasion of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing anniversaries.

It felt very honored to attend this conference. Of course, one reason for my excitement was the fact that I have been active in the nuclear disarmament movement for several years and I always wished to visit Japan, especially Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Also, I was happy to hear that once again Gensuikyo invited my organization BANg to the conference and in that way acknowledged our work and commitment for a world free of nuclear weapons.

Actually BANg, the Ban All Nukes generation, is more a network among young people than a real organization. It was founded in 2005 to give young people the opportunity to raise their voice against nuclear weapons. It focuses primarily on educational aspects among young people within the nuclear disarmament field.

Japan was a completely new experience for me. I have been to international conferences on nuclear weapons issues before, but none of them was like the one in Hiroshima in Nagasaki. Not only the Japanese punctuality and the tight program were unique, but also the people who participated in the conference. In total, there were more than 7,000 people coming from all over Japan, including 89 overseas representatives from more than 20 different countries. I was pleased to meet these people, because it was particularly interesting for me to listen to the problems people face around the world and the campaigns in different countries. I learned many new things, especially regarding the situation in the Asian and Pacific region. Furthermore, it was very inspiring to listen to the struggle of Japanese people for nuclear disarmament. I was impressed by the number of local groups and their creativity, which they often expressed with colorful, lovely banners. Also, I appreciated the fact that many participants spoke frankly about the danger related to the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident and that they deeply linked the issue of nuclear energy with nuclear weapons. This has always been a central point to discuss for me, but people at other conferences in Europe often try to avoid this issue because there are still people who are in favour of nuclear energy (unbelievebale – but true).
 

The Hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, played a crucial role in this conference. Many of them presented their testimonies in front of thousands of people or met informally with young people in a workshop. It was very touching to hear their personal stories, to see their pain and suffering. I was shocked when I learned that Hibakushas are still discriminated in the Japanese society and that many of the survivors still have to fight for being recognized officially as Hibakusha in front of the state in order to get free medical treatment. Nevertheless, they continuously underlined how important it is to inform young generations about the bombings in Japan, because they can tell these stories to the next generations. As the Hibakusha generation will be ending soon, it is the duty of young people to go on telling these stories.

Jessica Herz from BANg Europe with Mr. Terumi Tanaka at the 2013 World Conference against A & H bombs in Hiroshima. He is the Secretary General of Japan Confederation of A and H bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) and a Hibakusha from Nagasaki.

My role in this conference was to make speeches about activities of BANg and young people in Europe, to contribute in the conference discussion and together with my colleagues to think about common strategies and campaigns in regard to the 2015 NPT Review Conference. I was glad to see that people appreciate BANg’s work among young people and for this reason, I had many opportunities to talk about our initiatives. Several people remembered me from BANg public actions, for instance from the action in Oslo during the Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons this year and from the action in front of the UN in Vienna at the NPT Preparatory Committee in 2012, which reconfirmed that our strategy of getting public attention does work.

In conclusion, I would like to share with you a special moment of this conference. After my speech in the closing plenary in Nagasaki on August 9, the anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing, my friend Maria Kim (also from BANg) and I performed the song “A little less conversation, a little more action please” in front of thousands of people. This song was already performed several times by BANg members at international political gatherings. To make it easier for the Japanese people to understand the song and to sing with us, we translated the lyrics into Japanese, so that at the end we created a very unique, young song for everybody. Finally, I realized that to involve more and more young people in the nuclear disarmament movement, there needs to be space for fun – and this action definitely was fun :)

Jessica Herz
August 2013