World Can't Wait is one of the signatories to the following letter which was delivered to the Japanese Consulate in NYC on Aug. 2, 2021.

We, the undersigned, representing a coalition of concerned peace and civil society organizations in the United States, are advocating for the abolition of nuclear weapons globally. We join together to express our sincere regrets and apologies for our nation’s atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although our government has not apologized officially for this horror, we would like to extend our deepest condolences to the atomic bomb survivors (Hibakusha) who have endured great mental and physical hardships for 76 years.

On January 22, 2021, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force. The Treaty does not legally bind the United States because our government has neither signed nor ratified it. However, all nuclear weapons, including the U.S. stockpile, have been declared unlawful by the international community. The entry into force of the Treaty is the beginning of a new movement to confront nuclear-armed states and demand that they cease producing or further upgrading nuclear weapons and agree to destroy those illegal weapons under the terms of the Treaty. We promise to continue demanding that the government of the United States sign and ratify the Treaty, and embark on a multi-lateral dialogue with all nuclear-armed states to eliminate all nuclear weapons on this planet.

We call upon Japan to relinquish the so-called “nuclear umbrella” of the United States by swiftly signing and ratifying the Treaty, and attend, as an observer, the first meeting of state parties in January 2022. We are concerned that many of the non-nuclear weapon states, such as Japan, believe that regional security is enhanced by the nuclear weapons of the United States. However, the world has become more dangerous under such nuclear deterrence policy. We recognize that relying on the nuclear umbrella of the nuclear-armed states is a form of conspiring to engage in unlawful activities under international law, because the Treaty not only prohibits nations from developing, producing, stockpiling, or threatening to use nuclear weapons, but also it prohibits nations from encouraging or inducing anyone to engage in any of these activities.

We call on Japan to support the peace process on the Korean Peninsula, and collaborate with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the northeast Asia region, along with the US, Russia, UK, France, and China as protocol parties. Here in the United States, the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act was recently introduced by Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA). The bill supports the commitments made at Panmunjom in April of 2018 by the leaders of the Korean Peninsula and calls for the US Secretary of State to pursue serious, urgent diplomatic engagement with the DPRK and the Republic of Korea in pursuit of a binding peace agreement constituting a formal end to the Korean War.

We add our voices to international calls for the Japanese government to halt its recent decision to release approximately 1.25 million metric tons of radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. We request that Japan explore alternative safer options for long-term storage at or near the Fukushima Daiichi to protect the environment and to minimize the health impacts on people and all living things. We must not forget that communities in the Pacific have still been living with the threats of remaining contamination exposure, decimated environments, and generational trauma from nuclear testing conducted by nuclear-armed states, such as the United States.

Japan has been suffering from the 2011 nuclear accident, which is the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. The disaster forced some 160,000 residents to evacuate. Tens of thousands are still displaced. Thyroid cancer, one of the known adverse effects of radiation exposure, has been on the rise among children. The use of nuclear technology - whether military or civilian - comes with enormous risks and incalculable consequences. Effective global nuclear disarmament will not be possible as long as we allow the commercial use of plutonium and highly enriched uranium.

We look forward to continuing our collaboration to achieve a nuclear-free world where, as the preamble of your constitution states, “all peoples of the world have the right to live in peace, free from fear and want.”

NO MORE HIROSHIMA
NO MORE NAGASAKI
NO MORE FUKUSHIMA
NO MORE WAR
NO MORE HIBAKUSHA

NEVER AGAIN!