Message of solidarity to the people of Japan – Accountability

In mid-March of this year, I asked you to sign a message of solidarity to the people of Japan, with which all Mankind have a great debt for their sufferings with the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and with the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. These sufferings warned us to the insanity to which humans can be led with the handling of the atom energy, which makes Evil destroy Life.

At the end of that month, on the 26th March 2016, a large demonstration should be held in Tokyo against the reopening of nuclear plants in the country, closed after the drama of Fukushima, and the messages would be delivered to its organizers.

Although more than a month have passed since this demonstration was held, with more than 37 000 people marching in the streets of that city, I would like to inform you that:

　　　-    the messages were signed by citizens of 30 countries: 19 Alternative Nobel Prize winners, 20 members of the of the World Social Forum International Council, 8 members of the World Future Council and by 379 Brazilian citizens, 11 of which members of the Brazilian Commission for Justice and Peace;
　　　-    Mrs. Lalita Ramdas, an important leader of the Indian environmental movement, who took part of the demonstration, read the messages in our name, at the beginning of it;
　　　-    the messages were subsequently delivered in person to Deputy Mr. Naoto Kan, former Prime Minister of Japan, in function when the accident occurred in Fukushima, to be brought to the attention of the Japanese Parliament.

Appeal for the creation of a Global anti-nuclear Network.

In the days before and after the demonstration, the First World Thematic Social Forum against Civil and military Nuclear also took place in Tokyo, with participants from more than 12 countries, mainly of Asia.

I would like to inform you that many of its participants also decided, at the end of this Forum, to launch an appeal for the construction of a Global Anti-nuclear Network. I am attaching to this e-mail the text of this appeal, in its Japanese, English, French and Portuguese versions.

It is open to the adhesion of individuals and organizations on the website of the 2016 World Social Forum in Montreal (fsm2016.org), in the window "Tokyo Appeal", having received till today 337 signatures from more than 30 countries.

The initial subscribers of this Appeal decided also to organise next August in Montreal, Canada, in the framework of the 2016 World Social Forum, a second Thematic Social Forum against Civil and military Nuclear, which is open to all interested people. Those who want more information can obtain it by writing to xonuclear@uol.com.br.

The French participants of the Thematic Forum of Tokyo will decide, in the month of June, in Paris, on the possible holding of a third Thematic Social Forum against Civil and military Nuclear in France in 2017, on the 31st birthday of Chernobyl accident. Those interested in it can ask for more information at the above address.

Minute of silence at the opening of the Olympic Games

Finally I would like to inform you of a proposal emerged among Tokyo Thematic Social Forum participants : to hold a minute’s silence in honour of Hiroshima’s victims, at the opening of the 2016 World Olympic Games  in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. By extreme coincidence, this opening will be on the 5th August at 08:00 pm in Rio de Janeiro, corresponding to 08:00 am of the 6th August 6 in Japan, and it was on this day of 1945, at 8:15, that the bomb of Hiroshima exploded.

The minute's silence being hold in Hiroshima in 2016 can therefore match the same homage  at the opening of a world event created in the perspective of building peace among peoples. It is an initiative extremely timely in the current world reality in which, more than ever, we have to mobilise for peace and against violence.

The proposal was assumed by the Association of Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki of S.Paulo (Hibakusha of Brazil) and by the Mayors for Peace Association. This association, of which the present Mayor of Rio is a member, among other Brazilian mayors, was created in 1982 by the then Mayor of Hiroshima, Mr. Takeshi Araki, who now supports enthusiastically the idea of the minute’s silence in Rio de Janeiro. The question is whether the Mayor of Rio and the Presidents of the Brazilian Olympic Committee and of the International Olympic Committee will welcome the proposition. Any help in this regard will be important.


Chico Whitaker, member of the Brazilian Commission for Justice and Peace and of the Coalition for Brazil Free of Nuclear power plants (chicowf@uol.com.br)




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