Volume 15 - 1 edits.qxd - Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Excerpt from Mayor Akiba's Acceptance SpeechThe problem of nuclear weapons was created by science and technology. Partly because of this, our movement to abolishnuclear weapons is firmly based on science, scientists, scientific thinking and all the relevant facts.Here I am using the words “science,” “scientists,” and so forth broadly. Let me mention a few examples that might benoteworthy. In the 1980s, a great movement was created, the nuclear freeze movement, largely through the efforts ofphysicians. Medical science, one of the scientific realms, declares that there is nothing these powerful scientists can doonce nuclear war erupts.Environmental scientists also show us clearly that from environmental and ecological points of view that nuclear war isnot preventable. The only way to get rid of this danger is to abolish all nuclear weapons.Other scientists and experts can tell you from their areas of expertise that the only way is to get rid of all nuclear weapons.Here I would like to add another component to this list of experts’ opinions about nuclear weapons. That is, the perspectiveof mayors or city managers.Actually there is an American president who describes what I am going to say very well. Let me quote him first. The presidentis Abraham Lincoln. He said, “You may fool all of the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the peopleall of the time. But you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”In a sense, this is an abstract statement but it is most true on the level of running a city, dealing with daily lives of citizens.For example, in lofty or high places, one could argue whether weapons of mass destruction exist or not and can getaway with not saying the truth.But on the level of issues that mayors deal with, when garbage piles up on the streets there is no denying it. You cannotjust lie. We have to deal with daily lives of citizens at that level. That is why mayors really see the facts clearly. We see thetruths that surround us very clearly and we base our judgment on those facts and truth.In October 2003, in Manchester, England, Mayors for Peace held an executive committee meeting. The discussion wasbased on facts that we have to deal with on a daily basis. We have come to the conclusion that nuclear weapons will haveto be eliminated as soon as possible. We have set the deadline for the year 2020.Although some people said that wouldn’t be doable, we set the year 2020 partly because of the hibakusha. Hibakusha isthe Japanese word for survivors of atomic bombs. As a matter of fact, after we announced the deadline we received warmwords from our hibakusha friends. Their only complaint or criticism was that 2020 was not soon enough because theymay not be alive to see the day....In 1945, just after the atomic bombing, some people claimed that no life would grow in Hiroshima for 75 years. Ofcourse you see the trees and flowers now, so this statement was not true. But in a different sense, as long as we havenuclear weapons on this earth, one could claim that no real life is actually thriving on the earth. We do not have lifeactualizing its fullest potential as long as there are nuclear weapons. Therefore, let us make sure that the year 2020, 75years after the atomic bombings, will be the year real life is born again by abolishing nuclear weapons.– Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi AkibaThe full text of Mayor Akiba’s acceptance speech and David Krieger’s presentation speech can be viewed on the Foundation’s website at:http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/programs/awards-&-contests/wca-award/index.htm#2004Nuclear Age Peace Foundation 11