Report on 2001 World Conference
Against A & H Bombs

by Ellen Thomas

Impressions of Japan | "Gomen Nasai"

2001 World Conference against A & H Bombs was held in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

There were "overseas delegates" from China, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, and Roratonga; Chelyabinsk, Russia; Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan; India; Libya; Norway; England; France; and the U.S., among whom I was one. Many more speakers showed up than were originally anticipated; the meeting accommodated all who submitted their speeches beforehand in writing. It was inspiring to hear the many stories of successful activism, and several appeals for solidarity (especially "spread the Kobe Formula," "save the Japanese Constitution," "insist on truth in education"). Much information exchanged (including email addresses, name cards), and exquisite gifts were showered on overseas delegates. I recorded as much as I could with video camera and pen. Many thanks to the Japanese delegates for making it possible for overseas delegates to attend the conference. And very special thanks to the amazing translators who kept people communicating with each other intelligibly, made sure we didn't drift away from the tight schedule or get lost between events, and amazed us with their respectful efficiency.

The Main Theme of the Conference: Nuclear Weapons States Must Make Good on Their Promise to Abolish Nuclear Weapons: International Cooperation and Solidarity Will Ensure the Future of the World

Sub-Themes:
(1) Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Without Delay
(2) Prevention of Bringing-in of Nuclear Weapons in Foreign Territories - Expansion of Nuclear Weapons-Free Zones Worldwide
(3) Support of and Solidarity with the Hibakusha and the World Nuclear Victims

International Meeting (Aug. 3-5, 2001, Hiroshima)

Opening Session
- Address of the Organizer by Sekiya Ayako, Committee of Chairpersons

Reports of Hibakusha
- Tanaka Terumi, Japan Confederation of A and H Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo)
- Kwak Kwi Hoon, Plaintiff, Hibakusha Aid Law Lawsuit, Republic of Korea

Plenary Session I
Sub-Theme 1: Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Without Delay
- Alyn Ware, Committee on Nuclear Policy, NZ/ NZ Representative to NPT Review Conference
- Jackie Cabasso, Abolition 2000/ Western States Legal Foundation, USA
- Jean Lambert, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, UK/ Member of the European Parliament, (Green Party)
- Niu Qiang, Chinese People's Association for Peace and Disarmament
- Joseph Gerson, American Friends Service Committee
- Anzai Ikuro, Ritsumeikan University, Japan
- Ogata Yasuo, Member of House of Councillors of Japan
- Gerald O'Brien, Peace Council of Aotearoa-New Zealand
- Ellen Thomas, Proposition One, USA
- Vietnam Peace Committee
- Ole Kopreitan, No to Nuclear Weapons, Norway
- Pierre Villard, French Peace Movement, France
- Phyllis Creighton, Science for Peace/Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
- Doug Brown, Burlington Association for Nuclear Disarmament, Canada
- Russell Z. Springer, Newton Teachers' Association, USA
- Michael Hovey, NGO Committee on Disarmament (NY)
- Sally Light, Nevada Desert Experience, USA
- Romesh Chandra, World Peace Council
- Horie Yuri, Women's International Democratic Federation
- Saito Kazuyoshi, International Association of Democratic Lawyers

Plenary Session II

Sub-theme 2: Prevention of Bringing-in of Nuclear Weapons in Foreign Territories; Expansion of Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones Globally
- Corazon Fabros, Nuclear-Free Philippines Coalition
- Lee Yujin, Green Korea United
- Sri Raman, Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, India
- Ken Wyatt, International Nuclear-Free Zone Local Authorities
- Kajimoto Shushi, Hyogo Council against A & H Bombs (Hyogo Gensuikyo)
- Yoshizawa Hiroaki, Okinawa Council against A & H Bombs (Okinawa Gensuikyo)
- John M. Itty, Christian Peace Conference - India
- M.A. Baby, Communist Party of India (Marxist)
- Bounsy Vonephoumy, Central Lao Buddhist Fellowship Organization, Laos
- Shiva Shrestha, Save the World, Nepal
- Hanna Harborow, Pacific Concerns Resource Center
- Vivek Mohan Rao, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU)
- Kalpana Khan Mondal, Science for Society, India

Plenary Session III

Sub-theme 3: Support and Solidarity for the Hibakusha and World Nuclear Victims

- Abacca Anjain-Maddison, Senator, Rongelap, Marshall Islands
- Eldon Note, Bikini, Marshall Islands
- Tom Bailie, Hanford Downwinder, USA
- Maidan Abishev, International Anti-nuclear Movement "Nevada-Semey", Kazakhstan
- Milya Kabirova, "Aigul", Chelyabinsk Nuclear Victim Organization, Russia
- Kaneko Kazushi, Hiroshima Federation of A-Bomb Victims
- Umeda Shoichi, Shizuoka Council against A & H Bombs (Shizuoka Gensuikyo)
- Zhenisgul Konarova, Public Fund - International Alliance of Women & Children "Samal-Samantha-Sadako", Kazakhstan
- Tatiana Mukhamediarova, "Aigul", Chelyabinsk Nuclear Victim Organization, Russia
- Russell Z. Springer, Newton Teachers Association, USA
- Philip White, Australia

Closing Session

- Greetings by Peter Weiss, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA)

Reports from workshops
- Workshop 1: Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Without Delay - Report written by Ellen Thomas
- Workshop 2: Prevention of Bringing-in of Nuclear Weapons in Foreign Territories - Expansion of Nuclear Weapons-Free Zones Worldwide - Report written by
- Workshop 3: Support of and Solidarity with the Hibakusha and the World Nuclear Victims - Report written by

Declaration of the International Meeting

Statement on problems relating to Japanese History Textbook and Prime Minister's Yasukuni Shrine Visit

2001 World Conference against A & H Bombs - Nagasaki

Opening Plenary (Aug. 7)

Greetings of Solidarity
- Yamaguchi Senji, Japan Confederation of A and H Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo)

Addresses by Government Representatives
- Hasmy Agam, Permanent Representative of Malaysia to the United Nations
- Jamil Majid, Ambassador of Bangladesh to Japan
- Karamchund Mackerdhuj, Ambassador of South Africa to Japan - Message from the Honourable Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki, President of the Republic of South Africa
- Andrew Hama Mtetwa, Ambassador of Zimbabwe to Japan

Panel Discussion of the Representatives of National Governments (Aug. 8)

- Hasmy Agam, Permanent Representative of Malaysia to the United Nations
- Jamil Majid, Ambassador of Bangladesh to Japan
- Karamchund Mackerdhuj, Ambassador of South Africa to Japan
- Andrew Hama Mtetwa, Ambassador of Zimbabwe to Japan

Closing Plenary (Aug. 9)

Nagasaki Resolution (translation's coming soon)

Letter to the United Nations and the Member State Governments

Addresses by Overseas Delegates
- Corazon Fabros, Nuclear-Free Philippines Coalition
- Tom Bailie, Hanford Downwinder, USA
- Jean Lambert, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament/ Green Party Member of European Parliament, UK
- Phyllis Creighton, Science for Peace/ Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Canada
- Michael Hovey, NGO Committee on Disarmament - New York


I was also blessed to be invited to speak in Gifu, Kobe, Himedji, and Nanko-town, as well as Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Impressions of Japan (2001):

Blue tile roofs, like peacocks in the island light, waves of water-foiling crenallations
on large family homes, ornate, housing three generations.
Rice fields, lush green in shallow pools, bright.
Sunflowers on clean stream, 1.5 million this year in Nanko-town.
Small tall apartments, laundry flapping.
Endless cities, dotted by rice paddies, sunflowers, and pagoda roofs.
White cranes, and grey, and brown, in unlikely places.
Bicycles with invisible locks, small autos with big legroom, small people with fluttering fans,
large Caucasians with sunburns and sweat.
Tidy homes with tiny treasures.
Tubs to fall asleep in, safely afloat.
Shoes for outside, for inside, for toilet rooms and baths.
Economy of space, clever adaptations:
Hidden hooks on trains, overhead racks.
Gadgets that hide in small palms.
Hotels rich with surprises: karioke microphones and whirlpool bath,
toilet spilling water from aluminium swan's neck
into a basin draining into tank just-flushed.
At least one "western" toilet nearly everywhere. My gratitude.
TV at 4 am teaches preparing sushi from the boat to the mouth.
TV at 5:30 a.m. teaches old folks' calisthenics.
Trains that run on time, people's bodyclocks synchronous.
Surprising to arrive 3 minutes before departure,
unbreathless, fed, time after time.
Sticky rice wrapped in seaweed, 140 yen, a comforting substitute to a stomach unused to gorging fish and pickles every meal.
Kobe harbor, safe from nuclear weapons but not from submarines.
A prime minister who speaks the right words but no one believes.
Hibakusha of several nations, the survivors, poor in money but rich in purpose and forgiveness,
veterans of the most hideous war - I'm sorry.
Dog barking. Man putt-ing golfballs in his front yard
three strides wide, scowling at visitors (how strange, people are so pleasant ... ah, I'm an intruder,
two strides across from rice fields, down from an ancient unattended temple).
Around the bend is home.
An etiquette of elegance, kindness, generosity, tatami mats and futons.
Vegetables and protein, fruit and caffeine every meal.
Sympathy, empathy, emotions plumbed, opinions heard.
Simplicity. Easy grasp of complexity. Integrity.
Open-minded, open-hearted, open-handed,
infinitely adaptable, logical, fun-loving, passionate,
I love you, Japan.

8/17/01, et

Headed home - a meeting in Berkeley, California, with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Social Justice Committee, set up by Cynthia Johnson of Women Strike For Peace - California. The following resolution was quickly adopted in a fine example of American-style activism (each of us asking the other to do their part). I promised to take the resolution to the U.S. Congressional Representative for Berkeley:

"30 people meeting at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Social Justice Committee meeting, after lengthy discussion, voted unanimously to ask our representative in Washington, D.C. to seek support for HR 2503, the 'Nuclear Disarmament & Economic Conversion Act.'"

Back home again -

Impressions of Washington DC, August 24, 2001

Hot as Gifu, Tokyo, Nagoya, but much dirtier.
No old women in draped sunbonnets sweeping public streets here. No fans. Few smiles. Hosed, broad ways for limousine traffic. Broken glass on the sidewalks for the neighborhoods ten blocks away. People pass warily. City streets empty after dark, mostly onto the Beltway. Homeless people gather in parks for sandwiches, soup, and sleep. Those who don't know how to behave among strangers are shunned. Nights of sirens, helicopters, police everywhere. 42 police forces in D.C., last I heard. Even the building guards are being promoted to gun-toting street duty. Senators and lobbyists live on Foxhall Road, high above downtown. Suburbs are spreading wider tentacles into farmlands. Police preparing for 100,000 anti-globalizationists the end of September. Perhaps the antinuclear vigil will be driven away from the White House again. We hope not.

This world has changed hugely since I was a child, born in 1947. Space is at a premium. The Japanese, who imprison 38 people to our 516, per 100,000 population, have been dealing with that problem for many years. Their solutions are elegant and ingeniously civilized. I often thought of Thomas Jefferson, America's inventive Founding Father, when I noticed some clever device never yet available in the U.S. In the U.S., we just consume and sprawl. We have so much to learn from the Japanese. Especially their Peace Constitution.


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