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  • Nuclear Abolition: The Road from Armageddon to Transformation

    Nuclear Abolition: The Road from Armageddon to Transformation

    Nuclear weapons pose a grave threat to the future of civilization. As long as we allow these weapons to exist, we flirt with the catastrophe that they will be used, whether intentionally or accidentally. Meanwhile, nuclear weapons skew social priorities, create imbalances of power, and heighten geopolitical tension. Diplomacy has brought some noteworthy steps in curbing risks and proliferation, but progress has been uneven and tenuous. The ultimate aim of abolishing these weapons from the face of the earth—the “zero option”—faces formidable challenges of ignorance, apathy, and fatigue. Yet, the total abolition of nuclear weapons is essential for a Great Transition to a future rooted in respect for life, global solidarity, and ecological resilience. This will require an emboldened disarmament movement working synergistically with kindred movements, such as those fighting for peace, environmental sustainability, and economic justice, in pursuit of the shared goal of systemic change.

    Civilization at Risk

    Nuclear weapons, unique in their power and capacity for destruction, pose an existential threat to humanity. Although the peril of living at the precipice of nuclear devastation is clear, progress toward nuclear abolition has been slow and uneven, and the issue of nuclear weapons appears distant or abstract to many. And yet, nuclear abolition remains vital to achieving a Great Transition in our minds and on our planet. Ignoring the problem could result in nuclear war, which could leave few, if any, humans to rebuild a better world. With so much at stake, it is more important now than ever to re-energize and broaden the movement toward nuclear abolition. Making Earth a nuclear-free zone would be a gift to all inhabitants of the planet and all future generations.

    The number of nuclear weapons in the world reached a peak of 70,000 in the 1980s amidst the Cold War. Although the nearly 15,000 that exist today across nine nuclear-armed countries (United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea) is far below this Cold War zenith, it is still enough to destroy civilization several times over. The vast majority of these weapons are in the arsenals of the US and Russia, the two countries that have always led the nuclear arms race.

    To grasp the scope of the risks, consider that atmospheric scientists conclude that a relatively small nuclear war in South Asia, in which India and Pakistan fired fifty Hiroshima-size nuclear weapons at each other’s cities, would send enough soot into the upper atmosphere to substantially block sunlight, shorten growing seasons, cause crop failures, and lead to a nuclear famine that could take the lives of some two billion people globally. The sunlight-blocking dust generated by the detonation of, say, 300 thermonuclear weapons in a war between the US and Russia could trigger a new Ice Age, dropping global temperatures to the lowest levels in 18,000 years, and leaving civilization utterly destroyed. Those who would survive the blast, heat, and radiation of nuclear war would live in a nuclear winter of freezing temperatures and perpetual darkness. The survivors would likely envy the dead.

    The history of the nuclear age reveals just how resistant nuclear-armed nations have been to real accountability, fueling a vicious cycle of ignorance, apathy, and fatigue. Only a global, systemic movement can bring the global, systemic change required. For that to be a possibility, the nuclear abolition movement must link up with the many other social forces fighting for a better world.

    The Case for Abolition

    It is clear that the status quo is not working. The paradigms of arms control and non-proliferation that dominate international diplomacy assume the continued existence of nuclear weapons. However, the dangers inherent in nuclear weapons will remain whether there are tens of thousands or only a few. As long as they exist, they can be used, whether by malicious intent, miscalculation or careless accident.

    Key attributes of nuclear weapons make them incompatible with a secure, sustainable world:

    Immense destructive potential. Nuclear weapons are capable of destroying cities, countries, civilization, and most complex life on the planet. The nuclear age has ushered in a new form of devastation: omnicide, the death of all. Living with nuclear weapons is like sitting on a world-encompassing keg of dynamite capable of exploding at any moment.

    Lack of discrimination between soldiers and civilians. Due to their immense destructive power, nuclear weapons cannot distinguish between armed soldiers and civilians, thus violating a basic tenet of international humanitarian law. As the world learned from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, deaths from a nuclear attack result from blast, heat, fire, and radiation, the latter especially painful.

    Concentration of power. The decision to use nuclear weapons resides with a small number of leaders, sometimes only one. In the US, the president is given the codes to launch a nuclear strike, and the same centralization of power holds in other nuclear-armed countries. No pretext exists for democratic procedure, or even a formal declaration of war. Of the nuclear-armed countries, only China and India have current pledges of “no first use,” i.e., that they will not use nuclear weapons unless first attacked with nuclear weapons.

    Geopolitical imbalance. The world is divided into a small number of nuclear “haves,” and some 185 nuclear “have-nots.” This provides some countries with the leverage to bully other countries into submission. As a result, nuclear weapons look more attractive to all as a way of asserting geopolitical power, increasing the prospects of nuclear proliferation.

    Diversion of resources from meeting basic needs. The development, testing, deployment, and modernization of nuclear weapons impose immense costs. In recent years, many nuclear powers have embraced a crushing fiscal austerity, reducing public funding for health care, housing, education, and other services for the poor, the hungry, and the needy, while spending billions to maintain or even expand nuclear arsenals. At the same time, scientific and technological resources have been diverted from socially beneficial purposes, such as the rapid development of clean energy technologies.

    Violation of fundamental moral and ethical codes. Maintaining the nuclear option carries with it the implicit and sometimes explicit threat of mass annihilation, which no major religious, cultural, or philosophical standard of moral principles would condone. The persistence of this threat stands as a profound moral malady of our age; the only cure is unleashing the better angels of our nature in a reinvigorated campaign for nuclear abolition.

    A Brief History of the Nuclear Age

    How did the world come to build and maintain, to the tune of more than $100 billion each year, such civilization-destroying weapons of mass destruction?1 The story begins with the creation of the first nuclear weapons in the secret US Manhattan Engineering Project during World War II. This massive project was initially sparked by fears, which ultimately proved unfounded, that Germany was well on its way to developing an atomic bomb. The war in Europe, had, indeed, already ended by the time the US conducted its first test of a nuclear device at Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945.

    Three weeks later, on August 6, 1945, the US dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, causing massive destruction and killing up to 90,000 individuals immediately and 145,000 by the year’s end. Three days later, the US used a second atomic weapon on the city of Nagasaki, killing tens of thousands more. Later, it came to light that the US knew, through the interception of secret communications, that Japan was trying to surrender and obtain favorable terms.2 The two bombs were used anyway, purportedly to keep the Soviet military from moving into Japan, while signaling to the Soviet Union and the world the coming preeminence of US military power in the postwar order.

    In July 1946, less than a year after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US began testing nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, which the US would administer as a United Nations Trust Territory starting in 1947. The US conducted sixty-seven nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958, the equivalent power of detonating 1.6 Hiroshima bombs each day for twelve years. Marshallese children on islands far away from the tests were powdered with radioactive ash, which they played in like snow. Over the course of the nuclear age, more than 2,000 nuclear tests have been conducted, causing untold numbers of cancers, leukemia, and other radiation-induced illnesses.

    By the end of the 1940s, the Soviet Union tested its first nuclear device, triggering a rapidly unfolding arms race. In 1952 and 1953, the US and the Soviet Union, respectively, detonated their first thermonuclear weapons, which, as fusion weapons, were far more powerful than the fission bombs used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

    The world came very close to nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 over the secret Soviet placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba. A number of incidents during the thirteen-day confrontation could have led either side to launch World War III. Ultimately, to the whole world’s benefit, an agreement was reached that the USSR would withdraw its nuclear weapons from Cuba, and the US would later and secretly withdraw its nuclear-armed missiles from Turkey.

    After reaching the brink, the US, UK, and Soviet Union took steps to control the nuclear arms race. First, the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) of 1963 prohibited nuclear testing in the atmosphere, outer space, and under water. The PTBT’s preamble stated clearly that it sought “to achieve the discontinuance of all test explosions of nuclear weapons for all time, [and was] determined to continue negotiations to this end.” But it would take another thirty-three years for the international community to adopt and open for signatures the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which has yet to secure the necessary support to enter into force.

    The second treaty in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis was the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which entered into force in 1970. It aims not only to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons to additional countries but also, importantly, to provide for the disarmament of then existing nuclear states: the US, USSR, UK, France, and China. Indeed, the NPT could have been more accurately called the Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Treaty. Parties agreed to “pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.” But a major loophole undermined non-proliferation: the treaty refers to nuclear energy as an “inalienable right.” Israel, India, and Pakistan never signed the NPT, and drew upon their so-called peaceful nuclear programs to develop nuclear weapons, while North Korea withdrew from the NPT in 2003, and conducted its first nuclear weapon test in 2006.

    The next two decades saw continued efforts by the Cold War superpowers to mitigate the risks of nuclear war. In 1972, the US and Soviet Union entered into the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, which set limits on the number of sites that could be protected with missile defense systems (the deployment of ABM systems had exacerbated the arms race as countries sought to build even more powerful weapons to overcome them). Then, at a 1986 summit in Reykjavík, Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev jointly stated that “a nuclear war cannot be won, and must never be fought.” They came close to agreeing to abolish their nuclear arsenals, but negotiations collapsed over Reagan’s insistence on developing missile defenses. With the collapse of the Soviet Union several years later, the Cold War came to an end, but bloated nuclear arsenals remain a troublesome and dangerous legacy of Cold War rivalry that has been difficult to dislodge.

    The post-Cold War era has offered a mixed landscape on nuclear disarmament. In 2002, the US unilaterally withdrew from the ABM Treaty, and soon began deploying missile defense installations in Eastern Europe near the Russian border, purportedly against a threat from Iran. But Russia is concerned that their real purpose is to take out any Russian offensive missiles that might survive a US first strike.3 The US abrogation of the ABM Treaty also removed restraints on stationing weapons in outer space. US withdrawal from the ABM Treaty may prove to be the single greatest blunder of the nuclear age.

    This checkered history notwithstanding, there has been some progress. A series of Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties (START) have substantially reduced US and Russian arsenals. As of 2018, each country is limited to the deployment of 1,550 strategic nuclear weapons, still far more than enough to destroy most humans and other complex forms of life on the planet.4

    In July 2017, the United Nations adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), the result of a partnership between the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a coalition of civil society organizations, and most non-nuclear weapon states. They joined forces to assert that nuclear war would be a dead end for humanity, with a total ban on nuclear weapons the only way out. ICAN’s 2017 Nobel Peace Prize builds momentum, but achieving the necessary ratifications of 50 countries will take time. The US, UK, and France have vowed never to sign or ratify it, preferring to control their own nuclear arsenals rather than to cooperate in preserving a livable world—a reminder of the entrenched opposition the nuclear abolition movement faces.

    Challenges for Movement-Building

    The nuclear disarmament movement reached its apex in the early 1980s, when the arms race looked bleakest. In 1982, more than a million people took to the streets in New York to demand that the number of nuclear weapons be frozen and further deployment cease. One must wonder if the protest was so large because it asked for so little: a freeze, rather than deep reductions. Still, the movement succeeded in spreading public awareness and concern about the dangers. Once the Cold War ended, though, interest in nuclear disarmament issues rapidly faded.

    Various factors have contributed to this decline in enthusiasm. First and foremost is ignorance. The awesome destructiveness of nuclear weapons lacks tangibility since they are largely kept out of the public sight and mind. As a result, many in nuclear-armed countries see them as a positive source of prestige and necessity for security. Nuclear countries boast of technological achievement and belonging to an exclusive “club.” When the Indians and Pakistanis tested nuclear weapons in 1998, for instance, their people took to the streets in celebration. Such national pride undermines efforts to establish nuclear abolition policies. At the same time, the security justification—the belief that nuclear weapons offer protection—is a fallacy. In fact, countries that possess them, by posing risks to other countries, become more likely to be nuclear targets themselves.

    Contrasting narratives about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki exemplify the tension between nuclear pride and punishment. Most people, at least in the US, learn in school that the atomic attacks were necessary to save American lives. A different story is told by the Japanese survivors—a story of pain, suffering, and death. These two stories, one from above the mushroom cloud and one from below it, compete for dominance as frameworks drawing lessons of the past for guiding the future. The story from above, celebrating technological achievement, serves to keep the nuclear arms race alive. The story from below awakens humanity to the extreme peril it faces. The nuclear abolition movement builds on the stories from ground-zero, those beneath the mushroom cloud.

    Beyond ignorance and its cousin pride, another source of apathy is a sense of fatigue. We must use our imaginations to envision the horror of nuclear catastrophe, but it is very difficult to sustain such fear in the public mind year after year, decade after decade, in the absence of nuclear war. The world has come close on many occasions, but malice, madness, or mistake has not yet triggered the use of nuclear weapons in war since World War II. Nonetheless, it is essential that we keep shouting warnings despite accusations of being “the boy who cried wolf.” Only by sounding the alarm can we build a movement with sufficient power to abolish nuclear weapons once and for all.

    Even when people understand the dangers of nuclear weapons, however, they may still be paralyzed by a perceived lack of power to bring about change. With decision-making power on nuclear policy highly centralized, individuals lack influence—unless they become politically active in large numbers. Ironically, the perception of impotence becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that impedes movement-building and effective change.

    The only way to change direction is to build a strong popular movement, in the nuclear-armed countries and throughout the world, to delegitimize nuclear weapons, support the Treaty on the Prohibition on Nuclear Weapons, and oppose reliance on nuclear arsenals. Political pressure from below is our best hope for getting governments of the nuclear states to join the rest of the world in prohibiting the possession, use, and threat of use of nuclear arms.

    Toward Systemic Change

    Nuclear weapons stand as the quintessential shared risk, posing a danger to the whole of humanity. The problem cannot be solved by any one nation alone. Nuclear abolition requires collective global action—a deep shift in values and institutions lest the forces that created the nuclear age continue to prevail.

    Just as no nation can succeed on its own, in our interdependent world, no movement seeking fundamental change can truly succeed on its own. However, movements are too often isolated in different issue silos, competing for support and scarce resources. This fragmentation erodes unity and long-term impact. The nuclear abolition movement must join with other movements seeking systemic global change.

    Synergy is most promising between the nuclear abolition movement and the wider peace movement, the environmental movement, and the economic justice movement. Each of these movements demands a global sensibility and global action. And each calls into question the governing assumptions of society that have led us down an unsustainable path.

    The most obvious opportunity for cross-movement collaboration is with the peace movement. Any war involving nuclear-armed states or their allies could lead to the use of nuclear weapons. Peace activists, of course, have often been on the frontlines protesting the expansion of nuclear arsenals. However, the peace movement in the US and globally appears to be exhausted after the long wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East that have dragged on for more than a decade.

    Still, there are bright spots. New approaches to peace literacy are sprouting up.5 Veterans groups, such as Veterans for Peace (VFP), have helped to reinvigorate the peace movement. Through their first-hand experience with warfare, the veterans bring a unique perspective, legitimacy, and energy to the quest for peace, and have demonstrated a willingness to take on the issue of nuclear abolition as well. VFP has resurrected the Golden Rule, a ship that first sailed in the 1950s to protest atmospheric nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific. Now, she sails again in support of nuclear abolition and to display the bravery and tenacity that can overcome militarism. VFP also supports such disarmament projects as the lawsuits filed by the Marshall Islands in 2014 at the International Court of Justice against the nine nuclear-armed countries.6 The British Nuclear Test Veterans Association and other groups work to support veterans who have suffered radiation exposure from nuclear tests.

    The environmental movement offers another potential partner for cross-movement collaboration. Nuclear abolition has not been high on the priority list of the environmental movement. At least in the US, the movement has been preoccupied with defensive battles against an administration intent on rolling back environmental protection. Even before, it focused on tangible and immediately pressing battles while tackling such planetary-scale threats as ozone depletion and climate change.

    Environmentalists have, however, sounded the alarm on the deleterious impacts of so-called “peaceful” nuclear power, particularly in the aftermath of the accidents at Three Mile Island in the US, Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union, and Fukushima in Japan. But this is just one facet of the threat nuclear technology poses to a livable planet. Without total abolition, every aspect of the Earth’s living systems, as well as life itself, remains at risk, while building and maintaining these tools of total war are a drag on efforts to transition toward a sustainable economy. As nuclear energy always contains within it the possibility of nuclear proliferation, advocates of nuclear abolition must likewise get behind the fight for a renewables-driven clean economy that would render such technology unnecessary.

    The economic justice movement is a third promising ally of the nuclear abolition movement. Nuclear weapons systems have consumed vast public resources since the onset of the nuclear age. The US alone has spent more $7.5 trillion on its nuclear arsenal, and plans to spend $1.7 trillion more over the next three decades to modernize it. World nuclear weapons expenditures exceed $1 trillion per decade, with the US accounting for over sixty percent of the total with Russia accounting for 14 percent and China 7 percent.7 These resources could be far better used to provide food, clean water, shelter, health care, and education to those in need. This diversion of resources is a double whammy: we underspend on human and ecological well-being while intensifying the threat of a nuclear catastrophe.

    The militarization of the economy and centralization of power, for which nuclear weapons have been both cause and effect, are incompatible with egalitarian national economic systems. Internationally, as long as nuclear weapons give a handful of countries outsize power on the global stage, especially the ability to make credible threats, the shift toward a more democratic global economic system will be impossible.

    For all these reasons, nuclear abolition serves the cause of economic justice. And it is equally true that those of us who care about the nuclear threat need to advocate for greater justice. Economic inequality within and between nations fosters polarization, migration pressure, and geopolitical conflict, thereby raising the risk of (nuclear) war. Thus the peace movement has powerful incentives to ally with social justice movements.

    Peace, a healthy environment, and economic justice will remain elusive in a nuclear world. A cooperative movement of movements would enhance the capacity of each constituent to achieve its own goals, while fostering the cross-movement solidarity that can bring a Great Transition future. With the alarms sounding, the time has come to act together with a sense of urgency.

    Armageddon or Transformation?

    At the onset of the nuclear age, Einstein reflected, “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” The splitting of the atom made new modes of thinking not only desirable but necessary. Nuclear weapons threaten the future of civilization and the human species. We can no longer think in old ways, solving differences among countries by means of warfare. Instead of absolute allegiance to a sovereign state, we must think holistically and globally. In light of the omnicide that our technologies have made possible, we must elevate our moral and spiritual awareness to forge a movement global and systemic enough to meet the challenges ahead.

    Armageddon is a frightening thought, but as long as these “doomsday machines” exist, to use Daniel Ellsberg’s term, it remains a possibility. The only realistic alternative to Armageddon is transformation, both of individual and collective consciousness: an “anti-nuclear revolution,” to quote activist Helen Caldicott.8 This requires nothing less than changing the course of history; we are compelled to transform our world or to face Armageddon.

    Change ultimately begins with individuals. Movements are composed of committed individuals, some of whom step forward as leaders. The task is to awaken to the urgency of the threat and mobilize. The nuclear age and the Great Transition call upon us, before it is too late, to wake up.

    WAKE UP!

    The alarm is sounding.
    Can you hear it?

    Can you hear the bells
    of Nagasaki
    ringing out for peace?

    Can you feel the heartbeat
    of Hiroshima
    pulsing out for life?

    The survivors of Hiroshima
    and Nagasaki
    are growing older.

    Their message is clear:
    Never again!

    Wake up!
    Now, before the feathered arrow
    is placed into the bow.

    Now, before the string
    of the bow is pulled taut,
    the arrow poised for flight.

    Now, before the arrow is let loose,
    before it flies across oceans
    and continents.

    Now, before we are engulfed in flames,
    while there is still time, while we still can,
    Wake up!

    Endnotes

    1. Bruce Blair and Matthew Brown, Nuclear Weapons Cost Study (Washington, DC: Global Zero, 2011), https://www.globalzero.org/files/gz_nuclear_weapons_cost_study.pdf.
    2. Gar Alperovitz, “The War Was Won Before Hiroshima – And the Generals Who Dropped the Bomb Knew It,” The Nation, August 6, 2015, https://www.thenation.com/article/why-the-us-really-bombed-hiroshima/.
    3. The US public and leaders might more easily sympathize with this concern by imagining a scenario where Russian missile defenses were deployed at the Canadian or Mexican borders.
    4. President Trump’s criticism of this Obama-era treaty, which clouds its prospects, should also be noted. See https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-putin-idUSKBN15O2A5.
    5. A program developed by Paul Chappell at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is making its way into school curricula. See http://www.peaceliteracy.org.
    6. Although the lawsuit was dismissed, this type of action helps to forge a united front for a livable future.
    7. Joseph Cirincione, “Lessons Lost,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (November/December 2005): 47, https://thebulletin.org/2005/november/lessons-lost; Kingston Reif, “CBO: Nuclear Arsenal to Cost $1.2 Trillion,” Arms Control Association, December, 2017, https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2017-12/news/cbo-nuclear-arsenal-cost-12-trillion. Note that this will be $1.7 trillion when factoring in inflation.
    8. Daniel Ellsberg, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner (New York: Bloomsbury, 2017); Helen Caldicott, Sleepwalking to Armageddon: The Threat of Nuclear Annihilation (New York: The New Press, 2017).

    Originally published at www.greattransition.org. Cite as David Krieger, “Nuclear Abolition: The Road from Armageddon to Transformation,” Great Transition Initiative (August 2018), http://www.greattransition.org/publication/nuclear-abolition.

  • Ray Acheson | In Her Own Words

    Ray Acheson | In Her Own Words

    Tell us about your journey in the field of nuclear disarmament? What drove you to this fight and what keeps you going?

    I came to antinuclear work through broader social justice activism. I was antiwar and antimilitarist in high school and university, joining protests against the Iraq war, the occupation of Palestine, and war profiteers. I also worked against the death penalty and for the abolition of prisons. I did my undergrad degree in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto and by chance, interned with a woman named Randy at her organization in Cambridge, MA, the Institute of Defense and Disarmament Studies. Randy had drafted the call for a nuclear freeze in the 1980s and was one of the leaders of the Nuclear Freeze Movement and a co-organizer of the march and rally for the nuclear freeze that drew a million people to Central Park in 1982. She taught me a lot about nuclear weapons and the antinuclear movement, and when I graduated from university I sought a position at the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom working on disarmament, with the Reaching Critical Will program. That was 2005; I’ve been there ever since.

    I’ve been committed to antinuclear advocacy and activism because I see nuclear weapons as one of the ultimate symbols of injustice and hubris in our world, as well as a purveyor of catastrophic humanitarian suffering and environmental destruction. Nuclear weapons are possessed by a handful of governments that use them to dominate international relations. They have succeeded in controlling the academic and political discourse around these weapons, they have threatened other countries to bend to their will, they have tested these weapons thousands of times, mostly only on indigenous lands and communities, they extract the uranium from and bury the waste near vulnerable communities. Nuclear weapon policy and practice is racist, patriarchal, and dangerous, yet the tiny handful of governments that possess them have managed to control ideas about these weapons so that society has largely learned to live with them, and to believe they are necessary to maintain international peace. In reality, these weapons are maintaining the status quo for the most powerful, privileged countries on earth and put us all under the threat of annihilation. Confronting this set up, trying to change it, working collectively with activists and survivors and like-minded governments – this is what keeps me going. Working to abolish nuclear weapons, for me, is also about challenging patriarchy, racism, and militarism all at once.

    Briefly describe the relationship between patriarchy and nuclear struggles?

    There is the “ubiquitous weight of gender” throughout the entire nuclear weapons discourse and the association of nuclear weapons with masculinity described by Carol Cohn in her groundbreaking work on gender in nuclear weapons discourse. There is the denial of people’s—especially women’s—lived experiences of the weapons, that is, denial of others’ perceptions of reality. Such denial is characteristic of patriarchy and psychologically abusive relationships. The dominant discourse also attempts to justify and to link opposition to nuclear weapons to “womanhood” or “femininity” in order to belittle and marginalize antinuclear perspectives. All these complex dimensions are important to explore and expose.

    The connection between militarized/toxic masculinity and warfare creates and reinforces the widely observed gender stereotype, assuming men to be inherently violent and inclined to participate in violent acts. Men do constitute the majority of those committing violence and participating in armed conflict. But there is a distinct social history fostering this behavior, perpetuated by assumptions about masculinity and femininity and by the institutions and social structures influenced by these assumptions. When gender differential treatment of men becomes integral to political or military policy, it is difficult to change. Like institutional racism, it becomes part of the social fabric, continuously reinforced through practice, and so conditions the environment in which all disarmament negotiations take place.

    Within the context of nuclear weapons, the masculinity-warfare connection displays two key elements of gendered obstacles to denuclearizing security policy. First, the association of weapons and war as a symbol of masculine strength makes it harder to open up discussions about disarmament or collective security. Proponents of abolition are put down as unrealistic and irrational, as “emotional” or “effeminate”. In the last few years, some representatives of the nuclear-armed states have tried to argue that even talking about the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons or calling for abolition is “emotional”. They refused to attend the humanitarian initiative conferences. They have argued that the topic is irrelevant to conversations about nuclear weapons. Overall, the gendered discourse around nuclear weapons has made it more difficult for heads of state, diplomats, and the military to envision or articulate different security structures that do not rely extensively on weapons and military might to “protect” the “nation” or its people.

    Why have women been so silenced in the fight for nuclear disarmament, especially considering their long history of involvement in this struggle?

    Women have been marginalized in pretty much any issue dealing with peace and security, or weapons and warfare. Women, and others not identifying as men, are vastly underrepresented in disarmament and arms control discussions and negotiations. At the same time, women have been at the forefront of the antinuclear movement. Women were leaders in the campaign to ban nuclear weapon testing in the United States, using powerful symbols such as a collection of baby teeth to show evidence of radioactive contamination. Women led the Nuclear Freeze movement in the 1980s, calling on the Soviet Union and the United States to stop the arms race. Women were leaders in the movement to ban nuclear weapons in the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

    I think the disconnect between the high-level of women’s participation in activism against the bomb and low level of participation in government delegations or their silence/dismissal as non-experts is based on a very patriarchal approach to security and weapons issues described above in my answer to the second question. I think it’s also because of the technique of the patriarchy to deny lived experience, to consider the reality of lives and bodies as being “emotional” and as “non-expert”.

    When those flexing their “masculinity” want to demonstrate or reinforce their power and dominance, they try to make others seem small and marginalized by accusing them of being emotional, overwrought, irrational, or impractical. Women and other marginalized people have experienced this technique of dismissal and denigration for as long as gender hierarchies have existed. The denial of reason in someone else is an attempt to take away the ground on which the other stands, projecting illusions about what is real, about what makes sense or what is rational. One actor proclaims, “I am the only one who understands what the real situation is. Your understanding of is not only incorrect but also delusional—it is based upon a reality that does not exist.” It means putting self as subject and the other as object, eliminating their sense of and eventual capacity for agency.

    This is more than just an argument or a difference in interpretation. This is an attempt to undermine, discredit, and ultimately destroy the other’s entire worldview in order to maintain power and privilege. Objectification of others and control of reality, known as “gas lighting” in psychological terms, is as integral to patriarchy as it is to nuclear deterrence as a mechanism to maintain the current global hierarchy. When the majority of states, international and civil society organizations all say, “Nuclear weapons threaten us all and must be eliminated,” the nuclear-armed states say, “Nuclear weapons—in our hands—keep us safe and we must maintain them indefinitely.” When it is pointed out that they haven’t complied with their disarmament commitments, they claim that they have. They argue that they done all they can and now it up to rest of the world—those countries without nuclear weapons—to “create the conditions” for any further disarmament efforts. And it’s not just the reason or rationality of those supporting the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons that is denied. It is also the lived experience of everyone who has ever suffered from a nuclear explosion, or mining of nuclear weapons, or burial of nuclear waste.

    This isn’t just about silencing women. This is about silencing everyone who has an experience or feeling about nuclear weapons that contradicts the dominant narrative.

    Have you ever been silenced or ignored simply because you’re a woman? If  so, what did you do?

    Sure, all the time! But I just refuse to shut up. I keep writing, speaking, and inserting my views and the views of others I witness being silenced into the rooms and into the discourse.

    What does it mean to apply a gender lens to your work? Why is it so critical?

    Taking a human-focused approach to disarmament, and thereby challenging the dominant state-centered approach to international peace and security, was instrumental in establishing negotiations on the nuclear ban treaty. The humanitarian initiative, with its purposeful deconstruction of nuclear weapons as weapons of terror and massive violence, led to the majority of states being willing to negotiate the nuclear ban. An understanding of the gendered elements embedded in the discourse and politics of nuclear weapons will support the continued stigmatization of nuclear weapons and promotion of the new treaty.

    A gender perspective challenges governments and people to act on moral, ethical, humanitarian, environmental, legal, political and economic grounds without waiting for permission from those benefiting from the status quo—because that permission will never come. Humanitarian discourse intended to relieve multiple human suffering requires the recognition that nuclear weapons represent a constant threat of terror and that they perpetuate inequity between countries, with broader implications for humanity.

    Explorations of injustice help unmask their immorality. Within this more complex critique, gender analysis is crucial to illuminating and challenging the structures of power that impose injustice and deprivation and sustain nuclear weapons.

    Just as the humanitarian discourse undermines the perceived legitimacy of nuclear weapons, a gender analysis of nuclear discourse helps to deconstruct nuclear weapons as symbols of power and tools of empire. It can show that the enshrinement of nuclear weapons as an emblem of power is not inevitable and unchangeable but a gendered social construction designed to maintain the patriarchal order. As Carol Cohn, Felicity Ruby, and Sara Ruddick wrote in 2006, a gender analysis that highlights the patriarchy and social constructions inherent in this valuation of nuclear weapons helps to “multiply, amplify, and deepen” arguments for nuclear disarmament and question the role of a certain kind of masculinity of the dominant paradigm. Disarmament, sometimes cast by its detractors as a weak or passive approach to security, can instead be shown for what it is—rational, just, moral and necessary for our survival.

    Gender analysis also highlights the ways in which the possession and proliferation of nuclear weapons are silently underwritten and supported by an image of hegemonic masculinity, demonstrating just how dangerous and illusory an image of security produces. Being aware of the gendered meanings and characterizations embedded throughout the discourse and politics of nuclear weapons helps to “confront the traditionally constructed meanings and redefine terms such as ‘strength’ and ‘security’ so that they more appropriately reflect the needs of all people.” This kind of awareness can help us to understand and improve how we think, talk and act about weapons, war, and militarism in a broader sense.

    How has intersectionality impacted the field of nuclear disarmament? Did it impact the success of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons?

    The story of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons—and why it could be achieved now—must also be seen in the much larger context of the broader global resistance to injustice and oppression. In the United States in 2017, we have had Native Nations Rise actions; protests at airports and strikes at bodegas to protect the rights of immigrants; Black Lives Matter actions and professional athletes taking a knee to protest police violence against people of color. Around the world there have been initiatives to protect LGBTQIA people, refugees, workers, the environment. The Women’s March and the #MeToo campaign have smashed through layers of silence, exposing specific men but also disrupting the culture of misogyny, sexism, harassment, assault, and abuse.

    Nuclear weapons are part of these bigger systems of patriarchy, racism, militarism, and capitalism—systems that have been challenged throughout history, and that are being challenged now in new ways, from new collectives of people around the world.

    Women and LGBTQIA people are leaders in ICAN and the broader antinuclear movement, challenging the normative discourses that traditionally allow certain perspectives to be heard. Women also played a leading role among the diplomats in the process to ban nuclear weapons, with some delegations to the negotiations even being comprised solely of women.

    People of color also played a leading role in the nuclear ban. The process was galvanized and led by the nonwhite world, both in terms of governments and civil society. ICAN campaigners from Brazil to Kenya to the Philippines were instrumental in advocacy while most of the governments involved in the process are also from the global south. Indigenous nuclear-test survivors from Australia and the Marshall Islands gave testimony during negotiations alongside Japanese atomic-bomb survivors. Nuclear-weapon policy has long been recognized as racist and colonial. Banning nuclear weapons meant taking a stand against these policies, working together at the United Nations where all countries are supposed to have an equal say.

    How do you measure success in the fight for equal representation regarding nuclear talks? Is success being realized?

    We can measure success with numbers, to some extent – how many non-male-identified people are participating, speaking, being treated as experts within disarmament discussions and negotiations? How many all-male and all-white panels are still happening? Are government delegations and civil society groups making an effort to include – in a meaningful way – the views of people of diverse gender and ethnic backgrounds?

    There is some success. A few governments have been working to ensure participation of women from the global south at certain meetings by running sponsorship programs. Some have pushed for language in outcome documents in disarmament for encouraging governments to ensure the “full, effective, and equal” participation of women (such as the NPT, the TPNW, and also the UN General Assembly and the UN Program of Action on small arms and light weapons). There is some understanding of the relevance of UN Security Council 1325, which includes promotion of women’s participation, as relevant to disarmament. But much more work is needed. Even in civil society coalitions, the leadership is still skewed towards white, western activists and groups. Understanding privilege and taking an intersectional approach to our work is imperative, and we need to do much more.

    What are you focused on next?

    I’m writing a book about the process to ban nuclear weapons! I’m also working to promote entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, to prevent the development of autonomous weapons with the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, and to stop the bombing of towns and cities and war profiteering by holding states accountable to international law. (And a few other things!)

    Bio

    A fierce advocate for gender equality, Ray Acheson works for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), one of the world’s longest-standing feminist peace organizations. At WILPF she serves as the Director of Reaching Critical Will, a program focused specifically on disarmament. Sitting on the ten-person international steering group, Acheson represents WILPF at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Recently awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, ICAN and was recognized for a successful, intersectional campaign that led to the adoption of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. A champion for gender equity within disarmament, Acheson researches and writes about the important relationship between nuclear weapons and gender. Putting this research to practice, Acheson employs a invaluable gender lens in her fight for nuclear disarmament – a lens that provides her with hope for a future without the dangerous cycles of arms races and proliferation.

  • Nuclear Hypocrisy

    Nuclear Hypocrisy

    The United States brought nuclear weapons into the world. It is the only country to have used them, and it did so on innocent civilians.

    Nuclear weapons are now many times more powerful than the fission bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They make no nation safer but imperil all nations and the planet we all live on. Nuclear weapons are intrinsically immoral.

    Fifty years ago, the United States signed the Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. We joined the four other nuclear countries in 1968 to promise to work “in good faith” toward “complete disarmament,” while other nations that signed the treaty agreed to never obtain them.

    The current nuclear arsenal of the United States, however, and its plans to modernize its nuclear weaponry over the next 30 years (at a cost of $1.2 trillion, according to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office), radically belie the promise our nation made when it signed the Nonproliferation Treaty. Our country’s current deployment of more than 1,500 nuclear warheads in its triad of intercontinental ballistic missiles, strategic bombers, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles endows us with monstrous nuclear capacity and supremacy over all other nations.

    In February of this, the 50th anniversary of our signing the Nonproliferation Treaty, the Pentagon released its “Nuclear Posture Review” (NPR). In his preface, General Jim Mattis stated:

    “This review confirms the findings of previous NPRs that the nuclear triad—supported by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) dual-capable aircraft and a robust nuclear command, control, and communications system—is the most cost-effective and strategically sound means of ensuring nuclear deterrence.”

    And further:

    “This review affirms the modernization programs initiated during the previous Administration to replace our nuclear ballistic missile submarines, strategic bombers, nuclear air-launched cruise missiles, ICBMs, and associated nuclear command and control.”

    So, 50 years after promising to help purge the world of nuclear weapons, our nation insanely believes the best way to prevent the use of nuclear weapons is to assure that they are ever more effective. Moreover, we have the audacity to demand that other nations such as Iran and North Korea not have such weapons.

    Has there ever been a greater and more dangerous hypocrisy in the history of civilization?

    We are people who have protested at Vandenberg Air Force Base against nuclear weaponry. We protest at Vandenberg, because our nation tests its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) by firing them from the base to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, degrading the environment, health, and economic welfare of the small country’s indigenous peoples. We also protest at Vandenberg because the soldiers assigned to launch our nation’s nuclear ICBMs are trained at the base.

    Many of us have protested at Vandenberg for decades. We are old and young. We are Asian, black, brown, Native American, Pacific Islander, and white. We are agnostics, atheists, Buddhists, Catholics, Jews, Protestants, and Quakers. Some of us are military veterans of wars; others are lifelong pacifists. Many of us have been arrested during our peaceful protest at Vandenberg. Some of us have gone to prison; one of us went before the U.S. Supreme Court.

    We are all one in our opposition to the possession of nuclear weapons by any nation, foremost our own. We are also one in our love for humanity, and we hope that our nation will one day rid itself of its nuclear arsenal and authentically lead other nations to join it.

    Until that day, we continue our protest.

    Signed:

    Sue Ablao (Bremerton, WA); Mary Lou Anderson (Las Vegas, NV); John Dennis Apel (Guadalupe, CA); Mary Becker (Montecito, CA); Kelly Bowles Gray (Los Olivos, CA); Kent Carlander (Santa Barbara, CA); Karen Claydon (Santa Barbara, CA); Felice Cohen-Joppa (Tucson, AZ); Jack Cohen-Joppa (Tucson, AZ); Peggy Coleman (Los Gatos, CA); Dudley Conneely (Goleta, CA); Susan Crane (Redwood City, CA); Lucas Dambergs (Tacoma, WA); Reverend John Dear (Santa Fe, NM); Jeff Dietrich (Los Angeles, CA); Clancy Dunigan (Langley, WA); Dennis DuVall (Prescott, AZ); MacGregor Eddy (Salinas CA); Ed Ehmke (Menlo Park, CA); Daniel Ellsberg (Kensington, CA); Marilyn Fahrne (Santa Cruz, CA); Scott Fina (Orcutt, CA); Elizabeth U. Flanagan (Santa Barbara, CA); Toni Kathleen Flynn (Arroyo Grande, CA); Karan Founds-Benton (Los Angeles, CA); George Franklin (San Francisco, CA); Bruce K. Gagnon (Brunswick, ME); Cris Gutierrez (Santa Monica, CA); Jim Haber (San Francisco, CA); Chris Hables Gray (Santa Cruz, CA); Lynn Hamilton (Monterey, CA); Anne Hall (Lopez Island, WA); David Hall (Lopez Island, WA); David Hartsough (San Francisco, CA); Jan Harwood (Santa Cruz, CA); Tom H. Hastings (Portland, OR); Tensie Hernandez (Guadalupe, CA); Susan Hubbard (Monterey, CA); Brother Senji Kanaeda (Bainbridge Island, WA); Reverend Stephen Kelly, SJ (Oakland, CA); Katie Kelso (New Orleans, LA); Jane Kesselman (North San Juan, CA); Mary Klein (Palo Alto, CA); David Krieger (Santa Barbara, CA); Richard Lai (Las Vegas, NV); Frances E. Lamb (Bend, OR); Andrew Lanier, Jr. (San Jose, CA); Sandy Lejeune (Santa Barbara, CA); Sherrill A. Lewis (San Luis Obispo CA); Reverend Jeannette Love (Carpinteria, CA); Peter Lumsdaine (Port Hadlock, WA); Nancy Lynch (Santa Barbara, CA); Max Magen (West Marlboro, VT); Jorge Manly Gil (Guadalupe, CA); S.C. Maurin (San Francisco, CA); John Mazurski (San Francisco, CA); Betty McElhill (Tucson, AZ); Allison McGillivray (Eugene, OR); Gale McNeeley (Santa Maria, CA); Christine Milne (Santa Barbara, CA); Jessica Morley (Grants Pass, OR); Ken Murphy (Santa Barbara, CA); Elizabeth Murray (Poulsbo, WA); Donald Nollar (Los Angeles, CA); Mary Jane Parrine Ehmken (Menlo Park, CA); Hilary Peattie (Goleta, CA); Lacksana Peters (San Leandro, CA); Lorin Peters (San Leandro, CA); Lawrence Purcell (Redwood City, CA); Susan Pyburn (San Luis Obispo, CA); Mary Rice (Crozet, VA); Sister Megan Rice (Washington, DC); George W. Rodkey (Tacoma, WA); Jack Schultz (Santa Cruz, CA); Martin Sheen (Malibu, CA); Valerie Sklarevsky (Malibu, CA); Lida Sparer (Ridgecrest, NC); Starhawk (San Francisco, CA); Anne Symens-Bucher (Oakland, CA); Laura-Maire Taylor (Las Vegas, NV); Edward Van Valkenburgh (Santa Cruz, CA); Tom Webb (Oakland, CA); J. Webb Mealy (Santa Barbara, CA); dress wedding (Oakland, CA); Lynda Williams (Sebastopol, CA); Michael Wisniewski (Hacienda Heights, CA); Samuel Yergler (Eugene, OR); John Yevtich (New Orleans, LA); Brother Gilberto Zamora Perez (Bainbridge Island, WA); Randy Ziglar (Santa Monica, CA).

    The 91 co-signers of this commentary have all protested at Vandenberg Air Force Base. They come from 11 states (and the District of Columbia) and both coasts of our country, and include such notable national figures as Daniel Ellsberg, actor Martin Sheen, peace activist Sister Megan Rice, author Father John Dear, and David Krieger, founding executive director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

  • Testimony in Support of California Assembly Joint Resolution 33

    Testimony in Support of California Assembly Joint Resolution 33

    I’d like to begin by thanking my Assemblymember, Monique Limon, for introducing this important resolution.

    My name is Rick Wayman. I’m the Deputy Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, a non-profit organization headquartered in Santa Barbara. On behalf of our 80,000 members worldwide, including over 10,000 here in California, I thank you for the opportunity to speak here today.

    Last year, I had the privilege of participating in the negotiations at the United Nations for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. As a partner organization of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, we share in the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded for our work on this groundbreaking treaty.

    Right now, we have a federal government that is choosing to spend over $100,000 per minute for the next 30 years on nuclear weapons upgrades. But it’s not just dollars that we’re squandering. Nuclear weapons are, simply put, indiscriminate mass killing devices. Any use would be illegitimate and wholly unacceptable.

    California has a long and proud history of setting positive legislative trends and kick-starting the process of change nationwide. That is why AJR 33 is so important today.

    This resolution lays out some of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences that could occur should nuclear weapons be used again. I have worked closely with people around the world deeply impacted by nuclear weapons development, testing, and use. Every one of them tells me the same thing: we must put an end to nuclear weapons so that no one ever suffers this same fate.

    The Assembly and Senate of the State of California now have a unique opportunity to contribute to this noble goal.

    For 50 years, the United States has been a part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This treaty has been remarkably successful at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons to additional countries. But it has failed to compel the nuclear-armed nations to fulfill their obligation to negotiate in good faith for an end to the nuclear arms race and for nuclear disarmament.

    The 122 nations that voted in favor of adopting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons last year at the United Nations were complying with their obligation to act. The US was shamefully hostile to this process. The vast majority of the world’s countries are moving forward to outlaw and stigmatize nuclear weapons possession, and the US is being left behind. This emerging legal norm against nuclear weapons will only get stronger. California, followed by the entire United States, must get on the right side of history. But more importantly, we must do everything in our power to eliminate nuclear weapons before they eliminate us.

    Thank you.

    Rick Wayman delivered these opening remarks at a hearing at the California State Capitol on August 14, 2018.

     

  • Testimony in Support of AJR 33

    Testimony in Support of AJR 33

    Good morning. I am Marylia Kelley, the Executive Director for Tri-Valley CAREs. We are a Livermore, CA-based nonprofit organization with 5,700 members. Tri-Valley CAREs has monitored nuclear weapons activities at California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for 35 years. We are unique in that our membership includes scientists and engineers from the Lab, which is one of two locations where all U.S. nuclear weapons are designed.

    Tri-Valley CAREs is a partner in key coalitions including the International Coalition for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 for its efforts to achieve the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

    I had the honor of participating at the United Nation in negotiations for the TPNW last summer. The Treaty makes clear that nuclear weapons pose horrific humanitarian and environmental consequences that are legally and morally unacceptable under all circumstances.

    The Treaty was overwhelmingly adopted by 122 states parties last year, putting the vast majority of the countries of the world on record – speaking in a single voice – that nuclear weapons are no longer acceptable.

    This is how societal patterns are changed – and how national behaviors are changed over time.

    By voting to pass AJR 33, this committee becomes an integral part of the global shift to public safety based on a nuclear weapons free world for our children and all who come after us.

    It is right, timely and thrilling to me as a Californian that my state is poised to take a principled position to help ensure that nuclear weapons are never again used, that the international TPNW is supported, and that the elimination of nuclear weapons occurs at the earliest possible date.

    Thank you, Assembly member Limon for introducing AJR 33, and thank you members of the Committee on Public Safety for considering this Resolution – and for inviting me to speak this morning before your most important vote.

  • 2018 Nagasaki Peace Declaration

    2018 Nagasaki Peace Declaration

    It was on this day 73 years ago, at 11:02 a.m. on August 9. The explosion of a single atomic bomb in the blue summer sky reduced the city of Nagasaki to a horrific state. Humans, animals, plants, trees and all other forms of life were scorched to ashes. Countless corpses lay scattered all around the annihilated streets. The corpses of people who had exhausted themselves searching for water bobbed up and down in the rivers, drifting until they reached the estuaries. 150,000 people were killed or wounded and those who somehow managed to survive suffered severe mental and physical wounds. To this day they continue to be afflicted by the aftereffects of radiation exposure.

    Atomic bombs are cruel weapons that mercilessly take away from humans the dignity to live in a humane manner.

    In 1946, the newly-founded United Nations made the elimination of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction the first resolution of its General Assembly. The Constitution of Japan, which was issued that same year, set pacifism as one of its unwavering pillars. These were strong expressions of determination to see that the tragedy of the atomic bombings experienced by Hiroshima and Nagasaki, along with the war that brought them on, would never be repeated. The fulfillment of this resolve was then entrusted to the future.

    Continuous efforts to realize this resolve made by countries and individuals, most prominently the atomic bombing survivors, bore fruit last year when the United Nations adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Furthermore, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (also known as ICAN), which greatly contributed to efforts that led to the adoption of this treaty, was then awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. These two developments are proof that the majority of people on this earth continue to seek the realization of a world free of nuclear weapons.

    Even now, however, 73 years after the end of World War II, some 14,450 nuclear warheads exist in the world. Moreover, to the great concern of those in the atomic-bombed cities, a shift towards openly asserting that nuclear weapons are necessary and that their use could lead to increased military might is once again on the rise.

    I hereby appeal to the leaders of nuclear-armed nations and nations dependent on the nuclear umbrella. Please do not forget the resolve of the first United Nations General Assembly Resolution to work towards the elimination of nuclear weapons. In addition, please fulfill the pledge made to the world 50 years ago in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (or NPT) to pursue nuclear disarmament in good faith. I strongly request that you change to security policies not dependent on nuclear weapons before humanity once again commits a mistake that would create even more atomic bombing victims.

    To the people of the world, please demand that the governments and parliaments in your countries sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in order to see that this treaty comes into effect at the earliest possible date.

    The Government of Japan has taken the position of not signing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. In response to this, more than 300 local assemblies have voiced their desire to see this treaty signed and ratified. I hereby ask that the Government of Japan, the only country to have suffered from the wartime use of nuclear weapons, support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and fulfill its moral obligation to lead the world towards denuclearization.

    Currently, a new movement towards peace and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula has emerged. We in the atomic-bombed cities watch this development attentively and have great expectations that persistent diplomatic efforts, as initiated with the Panmunjom Declaration by the leaders of North and South Korea and the first ever United States-North Korea Summit, will lead to the realization of irreversible denuclearization. I hope that the Japanese government will make use of this great opportunity to work towards the realization of a Northeast Asia Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone that would see Japan and the entire Korean Peninsula denuclearized.

    Last year, two of the hibakusha, or atomic bombing survivors, who led the anti-nuclear-weapons movement in Nagasaki for many years passed away in quick succession. One was Mr. Hideo Tsuchiyama, who had this to say about the leaders of countries that rely on nuclear weapons. “Your possession of nuclear weapons, or attempts to possess such weapons, is nothing to boast of. Rather, you should know that it is something shameful that risks making you perpetrators of crimes against humanity.” The second of these hibakusha, Mr. Sumiteru Taniguchi, spoke the following words. “Human beings and nuclear weapons cannot co-exist. The suffering we went through is more than enough. For people to truly live as human beings, we cannot allow a single nuclear weapon to remain on the face of the earth.” These two people harbored great worries that those who have never experienced war or atomic bombings might head down mistaken paths. With their passing, I feel anew the need to pass on to the next generation the war-renouncing message included in the Constitution of Japan.

    There are many things that each and every one of us can do to help bring about the realization of a peaceful world. One is to visit the atomic-bombed cities in order to learn about history and the fearfulness of nuclear weapons. It is also important to listen to accounts of the wartime experiences of those in your own towns. While the experiences themselves are not things that can be shared, feelings of appreciation for peace may be shared by all. The campaign to collect ten-thousand signatures in support of the abolition of nuclear weapons, a project that originated in Nagasaki, started with a proposal made by high school students. The ideas and actions of the young generation have the power to create new movements. There are also people who continue to fold paper cranes and send them to the atomic-bombed cities. Through exchanges between people from different cultures and traditions we deepen our mutual understanding, which in turn can lead to peace. We can also make expressions of peace through our favorite music or sport. The foundations of peace are most certainly formed in civil society. Let us use the power of the civil society to spread throughout the world a culture of peace instead of one of war.

    Seven years have now passed since the nuclear power plant accident that followed the Great East Japan Earthquake, yet the people of Fukushima are still suffering from the effects of radiation. Nagasaki continues to offer support to all those in Fukushima who are persevering with efforts aimed at rebuilding.

    The average age of the hibakusha is now over 82. I ask that the Government of Japan improve efforts to provide support for survivors still suffering from the aftereffects of the bombings, and offer relief as soon as possible for those who experienced the bombings but have yet to receive official recognition as such.

    While offering our heartfelt condolences to those who lost their lives in the atomic bombings, we citizens of Nagasaki hereby declare that we will continue to work tirelessly with people around the world to bring about everlasting peace and the realization of a world free of nuclear weapons.

  • 2018 Sadako Peace Day: Reflection and Renewal

    2018 Sadako Peace Day: Reflection and Renewal

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    Our 24th annual Sadako Peace Day took place on August 6, 2018. It was the first public event at La Casa de Maria since the catastrophic mudslides that devastated the retreat center and many other places in Montecito in January 2018. Twenty-three lives were lost in the disaster. This year, we reflected on our local situation in addition to remembering the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and all innocent victims of war.

    Sadako Sasaki was a two-year-old girl living in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the morning the atomic bomb was dropped. Ten years later, she was diagnosed with radiation-induced leukemia. Japanese legend holds that one’s wish will be granted upon folding 1,000 paper cranes. Sadako folded those 1,000 cranes, saying, “I will write peace on your wings, and you will fly all over the world.” Sadly, Sadako never recovered from her illness. Students in Japan were so moved by her story, they began folding paper cranes, too. Today the paper crane is a symbol of peace and a statue of Sadako stands in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

    Click here to download the full audio of the event.

    All photos on this page are by Rick Carter.

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    Event Photos

    A selection of photos from our 2018 Sadako Peace Day event are on our Flickr page. All photos by Rick Carter.

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    Kissing Joy as it Flies

    Bob Nyosui Sedivy on the shakuhacki, the ancient Japanese bamboo flute. Audio file.

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    Welcome

    Rick Wayman is NAPF’s Deputy Director. Audio file. Transcript.

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    Original Poems by David Krieger

    NAPF President David Krieger read two original poems: “In Our Hubris” and “Another Hiroshima Day Has Arrived.” Audio file.

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    Sadako’s Cranes Return

    Original poem by Perie Longo, Chair of the NAPF Poetry Committee and Santa Barbara’s Poet Laureate from 2007-09. Audio file. Transcript.

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    Peace Beneath Our Wings

    Original dance interpretation of the peace crane by NAPF intern Maranda Jory-Geiger, with Bob Sedivy on the shakuhachi. Video coming soon.

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    Peace in the Ethers

    Original poem by Enid Osborn, Santa Barbara’s current Poet Laureate. Audio file. Transcript.

    [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_3″ layout=”1_3″ spacing=”” center_content=”no” link=”” target=”_self” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” hover_type=”none” border_size=”0″ border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” dimension_margin=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” last=”no”][fusion_imageframe image_id=”13392″ max_width=”” style_type=”none” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align=”center” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” alt=”” link=”” linktarget=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]https://wagingpeace.davidmolinaojeda.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/paul_willis-300×200.jpg[/fusion_imageframe][fusion_separator style_type=”default” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” sep_color=”” top_margin=”30px” bottom_margin=”” border_size=”0″ icon=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” width=”” alignment=”center” /][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” class=”” id=””]

    Walking on Water, Pyramid Lake

    Original poem by Paul Willis, Professor of English at Westmont College and a former Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara. Audio file. Transcript.

    [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_3″ layout=”1_3″ spacing=”” center_content=”no” link=”” target=”_self” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” hover_type=”none” border_size=”0″ border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” dimension_margin=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” last=”no”][fusion_imageframe image_id=”13394″ max_width=”” style_type=”none” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align=”center” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” alt=”” link=”” linktarget=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]https://wagingpeace.davidmolinaojeda.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/sandy_hal-300×200.jpg[/fusion_imageframe][fusion_separator style_type=”default” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” sep_color=”” top_margin=”30px” bottom_margin=”” border_size=”0″ icon=”” icon_circle=”” icon_circle_color=”” width=”” alignment=”center” /][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” class=”” id=””]

    God was Sleeping and Tractor for a Cab

    Original songs by Hal Maynard and NAPF Director of Communications Sandy Jones. Audio file.

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    Nana korobi ya oki

    Sarah Witmer, NAPF Director of Development, spoke about this Japanese proverb, which translates “fall down seven times, get up eight.” Audio file. Transcript.

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    La Casa de Maria

    Stephanie Glatt, Director Emerita of La Casa de Maria, spoke about the meaning of holding Sadako Peace Day in the garden this year. Audio file.

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    Impermanence

    Bob Nyosui Sedivy on the shakuhachi. Audio file.

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  • In Our Hubris

    In Our Hubris

    We have, through our cleverness,
    created nuclear weapons and found a way
    to live with them.

    We risk everything that matters, everything
    of beauty and meaning, everything we love.

    Science has given us the power of annihilation,
    the capacity to destroy ourselves.

    With nuclear arms, the gun is loaded and pointed
    at the collective head of humanity.

    We avert our eyes and pretend not to see.
    Have we given up on our common future?

    How shall we react?  How shall we resist?
    How shall we awaken before it is too late?

  • Sadako’s Cranes Return

    Sadako’s Cranes Return

    (Peace Garden, La Casa de Maria)

    In truth, they never left,
    these oldest living birds, constant
    in their possibility of  peace. Wide-winged,
    they’ve migrated across centuries
    joining earth to sky,

    landing in the heart of  young Sadako
    with her wish to live. If she folded one thousand
    small, square papers in their image,
    they might cure her from the poisons
    of the mushroom bomb.

    It ended her life, changed the direction
    of history, sent us to our aching knees, yet
    here we gather in the garden where her spirit thrives
    with the cranes who’ve only been in hiding,
    on guard between the thick limbs of live oaks

    and the open-armed eucalyptus.
    The gate unlocked since winter’s terror, we walk
    with caution once more on this sacred ground.
    Awed, the silence profound…gone are the grinds
    of machines to lift and remove the eruptions

    of mud, to clean and repair, unearth
    the stone walls, the podium, the fountain. Our footsteps
    crackle on bark chips laid to protect dear earth
    once buried when the mountain’s face fell
    into the garden’s hold. We bow to see

    the rebirth of paper cranes, bursts of color
    folded by the hands of school children
    Sadako’s age from Manhattan Beach, who also
    dream peace for the future they will face.
    No longer complacent with our place

    in Paradise, more aware than ever of our task,
    hearts weigh heavy with lives lost,
    the cost of the deluge, and beyond this refuge—
    our freedoms under siege.
    Like Sadako’s cranes for peace,

    let’s keep showing up, like the child
    who hand-painted a flag with the words
    Love lives here, and hung it low on a tree
    just down the road. What matters more?
    As Rumi said, there are a thousand ways to kneel
                                        and kiss the ground.

     

     

    by Perie Longo
    Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Emerita
    6 Aug ‘18

  • Peace in the Ethers

    Peace in the Ethers

    For Sadako Peace Day, August 6th, 2018
    La Casa de Maria Peace Garden

     

    Water the seeds of happiness.
                    –Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Han

     

    She was a thin woman
    and her peace was a thin peace.
    Touch it, it turned to dust.

    She awoke from nightmares of fire
    to feel about on her nightstand
    for peace, hold it in her hand,

    invoke the refuges aloud.
    She pinned a medallion
    of Quan Yin next to her heart

    and made a small garden
    at the feet of Tepeyac,
    carrying jars of water.

    Hers was a shriveled peace.
    She was not a gifted gardener
    but invited with her droplets

    More color, please,
    a little blue for Mother
    and the bees.

    In her dedications, the garden
    was for everyone, all sides
    of the family and the neighbors,

    with apologies to her ancestors
    for breaking the chain of retribution
    they had built their lives upon.

    She allowed those walls to crumble,
    moved La Virgen to the center
    and went about her work

    to preserve each tender petal,
    every little bit of color:
    a treaty in her heart.

    Tangible, dearly held,
    the roots of peace took hold:
    Peace in the ground,

    and peace in the ethers,
    the scented, peace-giving breath
    of geranium, rosemary,

    mugwort, lemon balm.
    Every day, through drought and war,
    she drew down the heavens

    and watered seeds of happiness
    from a perpetual spring
    that sang within her.