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Letter from the Mayor of Hiroshima to the People of Maui
On the Occasion of the 2003 Hiroshima/Nagasaki Commemoration
(Read at the Community Peace Observance, Iao Congregational Church, 8/6/2003.)
Today, on behalf of Hiroshima citizens, I would like to send a message to celebrate Maui Hiroshima /
Nagasaki Commemoration 2003.
Let me begin by thanking you for taking the time from your busy lives to remind yourselves and the people of
your area about the threat of nuclear weapons.
Fifty-eight years ago, when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were each reduced to ash and rubble by a single small
atomic bomb each, we entered the nuclear age, and war became obsolete. Ever since, the cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, led by our A- bomb survivors, have been trying to tell the world about the dangers of nuclear weapons and the need
to preserve peace at all costs.
For a time in the late 1980's and early 90s, it appeared that we were moving in the right direction. The Cold
War ended amid deep reductions in nuclear weaponry and a moratorium on nuclear testing. It seemed we would at last
take down the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads for so long.
Unfortunately, the culture of war has launched a powerful counterattack. Rather than reducing military spending
and shifting funds toward the alleviation of human suffering, governments around the world appear to be increasing
military budgets. In the wake of September 11, we appear to be more convinced than ever that the answer to violence is
more killing.
In recent months, we have heard governments seriously considering the unthinkable. Tensions between India
and Pakistan rose last year to the brink of nuclear war. Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been
extremely high, and some Americans have called publicly for the use of nuclear weapons in Afghanistan and Iraq. The US
Nuclear Posture Review issued in 2002 outlines specific circumstances under which nuclear weapons might be used on
certain nations, including non-nuclear nations. In a context of speculation that Iraq, Iran, and North Korea may be attempting
to build nuclear arsenals, the Bush administration requested increased funds for the development of nuclear
earth penetrator bombs and so called "mini-nukes" with the idea that such weapons could actually be used
pre-emptively against nations with weapons of mass destruction. Incredibly, here in the 21st century, some people still appear
to believe that nuclear weapons have a rational combat role. This idea must be stamped out completely before it can
grow further.
If the United States were to use a nuclear weapon, the taboo would be broken. The hatred and fear released
by such an act would lead inevitably to the retaliatory, terrorist use of a nuclear weapon in the US or Europe. We have
seen what happened after two buildings in New York were destroyed. The world has yet to recover from the fear,
hatred, violent retaliation, and emotional and economic pain which that event engendered. If even a small nuclear weapon
were to destroy several blocks in Manhattan, Washington D.C., Berlin, or Paris, our already-strained, highly
interdependent civilization is likely to fall to depths of violence, death, destruction and suffering that only the people of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki can imagine.