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Third Session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2020 NPT Review Conference
April 29 – May 10, 2019

Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo)

The Japan Council against A and H Bombs, since its founding in 1955, has been working tirelessly at the grass-roots level to achieve the three main goals: Prevention of nuclear war, Total ban and elimination of nuclear weapons and support for the Hibakusha, A-bomb victims.  First of all, we sincerely hope that the 10th Review Conference of the NPT, approaching in one year, will make a headway in taking effective measures for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation on the basis of the agreements already reached, and will mark a turning point in redirecting “enormous amount of resources from nuclear armament to peace, sound environment, development and meeting human needs.”

“Humans cannot coexist with nuclear weapons” – this is the lesson for the present and future generations left by the 210,000 victims killed by the atomic bombs in 1945 and about 150,000 surviving Hibakusha who still suffer from delayed effects and wounds both mentally and physically. The danger of nuclear weapons remains real and if used, whether intentionally or by accident, their possible outcome would be beyond imagination. We should always bear in mind the scope of sacrifice and inhumane consequences that visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

We are disappointed to see the insistence that “condition for nuclear disarmament does not exist” or “nuclear weapons are the guarantee of security” is still brought up in the place where preparations to achieve a “nuclear weapon-free world” are to be discussed. They are nothing but self-serving arguments only for the states possessing nuclear weapons or depending on them. They are similar to the argument which says, “A society with guns is safer than a society where they are prohibited.”  If the argument that a world with nuclear weapons is safer than a world without nuclear weapons were viable, the notion of nuclear non-proliferation would lose its ground completely.

Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of nations have denied the fallacy of “a security by nuclear weapons”, and are moving toward the prohibition of these weapons in support of Article 6 of the NPT. Far from “conditions being non-existent”, the elimination of nuclear weapons has been agreed upon by many past review conferences, including the support of the nuclear weapon states. Take the 13 practical steps, including the “unequivocal undertaking” of the nuclear weapon states to “accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals”, agreed upon by the 2000 Review Conference, the “special efforts to establish necessary framework” “to achieve the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons” and the convening of an international conference to make the Middle East a nuclear weapon-free zone, agreed in the 2010 Review Conference. It is clear that the focus of the 2020 Review Conference, which will mark the 50th anniversary of the entry into force of the NPT, should be set on the implementation of these agreements.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is a product in the development of discussions in the 50-year-old NPT. It is in line with the agreement to “achieve the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons”, and is gathering support not only from non-nuclear weapon states but from a broad range of civil society around the world. The treaty is a new contribution made in the review process of the NPT.

We propose that all states should set in place the agreement on the elimination of nuclear weapons in their own security policies and make the 2020 Review Conference a point of decisive turn to achieving a total ban and elimination of nuclear weapons.