The Honorable Ban Ki-Moon
Secretary–General of the United Nations Organization
New York City, NY.
___________________________________________
Tokyo, January 17, 2012
Dear Secretary-General,
Honorable Ban Ki-moon,
I hope everything goes alright for you.
The nuclear accident in Fukushima still remains a real threat, menacing Japan and the whole world.
Please allow me to send the text of my speech in which I referred to
the possibility of the Fukushima nuclear accident becoming the first
step toward the ultimate catastrophe of the world.
Suffice it to say that ,on March 14 three days after
the Earthquake and the Tsunami, the electric company TEPCO wanted to
withdraw the whole team from the site of the accident in the face of
approaching explosions. The government, thanks to the strong leadership
of the then Prime Minister Kan, managed to persuade the Tepco to
remain. If the withdrawal had taken place, it would have triggered the
end of Japan and the beginning of a global catastrophe. It is a
historic fact that should be known by the whole world.
An eminent professor of Harvard University who finds my speech “fascinating and impassioned” recently informed me that
he had heard a lot of disturbing things about Japan’s vulnerability to
reactor failure, including the possibility that an accident could force
the evacuation of Tokyo. My response to this is "Japan's
vulnerability to reactor failure is universally shared and it is by
good luck that Japan has survived so far. Good luck is not assured for
the next fatal accident anywhere in the world.”
The Japanese people no longer believe the assurance of security by the
authorities that are responsible for the Fukushima accident because of
their revealed total dependence on electric companies.
49 nuclear reactors have ceased functioning and 5 others will stop
their operations by next May for inspection. The competent authorities
helped by electric companies are endeavoring to
reopen their operations, but the governors and inhabitants concerned are increasingly opposed to it, supported by the
mounting public opinion. The nuclear policy of Japan thus finds
itself in a crucial stage.
Seven years ago, I sent out a message of warning in all
directions that electric companies would decide the fate of Japan.
I am now warning that the reopening of operations of nuclear reactors
will decide the fate of Japan and, possibly, the whole world.
I am convinced that Japan, experiencing the fatal Fukushima
disaster, now should call upon the world to seek true denuclearization,
both civil and military. I have long been
asserting that the present civilization of power based on paternal
culture must be replaced by a civilization of harmony based on maternal
culture, that is to say, a maternal civilization.
The first concrete step toward it is the UN Ethics Summit
which opens the way to a maternal civilization and the maternal
civilization is indispensable to true denuclearization. It is
thus the bond of ‘trinity’ that connects the UN Ethics Summit, a
maternal civilization and true denuclearization.
The Ethics Summit is expected to create an International Day of Global
Ethics （cf.annex）. As to its concrete date, we could choose April 5
(President Obama's Prague speech) or March 11 (the initiation of a new
paradigm).
I t is with all this in mind that I have written to the American
Ambassador in Japan, Mr.John V. Roos, asking him to suggest to
President Obama to take the initiative of holding a United Nations
Ethics Summit on the occasion of the next General Assembly in September
2012. President Obama from whom the world awaits the next concrete step
toward his vision of the "World without nuclear weapons", may find it
helpful to respond to this expectation.
I am trying my best to convey this idea to Prime Minister Noda so
that he could discuss it with President Obama during his next visit to
the United States.
Please allow me to have frankly expressed my recent thinking
based on my serious preoccupations as to the future development
of the Fukushima nuclear accident.
Please allow me to count on your invaluable moral support.
I wish you the best of luck in your noble mission.
With highest regards,
Mitsuhei Murata
Former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland and Senegal
Executive Director, the Japan Society for Global System and Ethics
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