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The Tunisian Nobel Prize: Dialogue as a Political Virtue

日本語訳 | français | العربية

The refugee crisis will no doubt reshape the geopolitical, cultural , global economic policies  and challenge the core principles of the Europe Union. The Syria crisis will not only continue to drive the refugee crisis but also potentially trigger revolution in Syria and other Middle East countries. We would like to share a mosaic view of these complicated issues. France has historical ties with Syria, North Africa and the Middle East,and in general, the French have a rich knowledge about the issues in the region. I was fortunate to be introduced to Patrice Barrat, founder  of Bridge Initiative International, by my good friends Byron Janis and his wife, Maria Cooper Janis.**

Patrice has worked at the grass-roots level for many years on his concept to build the bridge to transcend traditional barriers of culture and ideology.  In recent years, he lived in Tunisia to promote his mission at the fount of the Arab Spring and witness the activities of the Quartet, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureates. I am very pleased to introduce his noble work.

(**Byron Janis, the world famous concert pianist, composed the Global Forum theme song “One World “ – with lyrics by the four time Oscar winner Sammy Cahn and sung by John Denver. Maria Cooper Janis is the daughter of the renowned actor Gary Cooper.)

— Akio Matsumura

The Tunisian Nobel Prize

Dialogue as a Political Virtue

It seemed so simple. They were here, on stage, all together for the first time since the news came from Oslo – on October 9, 2015, a week earlier – that the union of their forces in the summer of 2013 had earned them the Nobel Peace Prize.… Continue reading

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Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Sanctity of Remembering

日本語訳 | español | français | Deutsch

Dear Mr Matsumura,

The novel The Sanctity of Remembering was written to resurrect Nagasaki and Hiroshima and to purge modern history of the myth and abuses that still surrounds the use of atomic bombs. While changing the voice of America by one and thus one at a time the novel took on both form and purpose. A voice previously not yet heard was to be created in the art of fiction, the best conveyance of truth. As in all poetic prose the plangent sound of the ill treated and unexpected becomes audible as I knew it might if I just stayed the task and kept writing and revising until help arrived. I wrote the novel because I conceived that one nation under God conceived in liberty would so endure and one world under the same God would learn to know each other in the truth. My characters were charged to address all on this globe in every way they knew until all things are made new. Too bad I have only a novel to give to the cause but it is a good one and I am happy to have it completed to honor another anniversary in Japan. I was exposed to four atomic bombs as teenage soldier in the United States Army and this is the fallout and my fall out and my fall in to the ranks of truth seekers without borders. Also know please that this specially conceived commentary is very much overdue.… Continue reading

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The Nuclear Sacrifice of Our Children: 14 recommendations to help radiation contaminated Japan

 

Read this article in Japanese, French, and German.


By Helen Caldicott, M.D.

 

When I visited Cuba in 1979, I was struck by the number of roadside billboards that declared ”Our children are our national treasure.”

 

This resonated with me as a pediatrician, and of course it is true. But as Akio Matsumura said in his article, our children are presently being sacrificed for the political and nuclear agenda of the United Nations, for the political survival of politicians who are mostly male, and for “national security.”

 

The problem with the world today is that scientists have left the average person way behind in their level of understanding of science, and specifically how the misapplication of science, in particular nuclear science, has and will destroy much of the ecosphere and also human health.

 

The truth is that most politicians, businessmen, engineers and nuclear physicists have no innate understanding of radiobiology and the way radiation induces cancer, congenital malformations and genetic diseases which are passed generation to generation.  Nor do they recognize that children are 20 times more radiosensitive than adults, girls twice as vulnerable as little boys and fetuses much more so.

 

Hence the response of Japanese politicians to the Fukushima disaster has been ludicrously irresponsible, not just because of their fundamental ignorance but because of their political ties with TEPCO and the nuclear industry which tends to orchestrate a large part of the Japanese political agenda.

 

Because the Fukushima accident released 2.5 to 3 times more radiation than Chernobyl and because Japan is far more densely populated than the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, and because one million people have died within 25 years as a result of Chernobyl, we expect to see more than one million Japanese casualties over the next 25 years.  … Continue reading

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Fading Memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

By Akio Matsumura

 

 

That indelible black and white image of an ever-expanding mushroom cloud still sits in many homes and offices and still haunts many minds. It conveys a sense of awe in the face of tremendous power. There are fewer iconic images that depict the sometimes barely tangible fallout of this power: the vanquished bodies of loved ones, the slow onset of cancer, the terror of the unknown. The true effects of nuclear weapons. For that, we have to rely on memory and story, the recollections of a generation now old and fading away. The survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki–not just Japanese but of many nationalities– are the sole witnesses and survivors of nuclear weapons used as an act of war.  Their stories of initial pain and eventual strength must be a constant reminder for the nuclear-armed. If used properly, these memories remain a powerful deterrent against nuclear war.

 

Hiroshima commemorated the 67th anniversary of the city’s atomic bombing earlier this week on Monday, August 6. Yesterday, August 9, Nagasaki marked theirs at Nagasaki Peace Park with a ceremony attended by representatives from over 40 countries, including the U.S. Ambassador.

 

Reading a Peace Declaration, Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue urged the international community to conclude the Nuclear Weapons Convention. Prime Minister Noda said that Japan has a responsibility to encourage countries to eliminate their nuclear arsenals.

 

Each year as both cities mark these anniversaries, I am more concerned with the average age of the survivors.… Continue reading

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The Fourth Reactor and the Destiny of Japan

By Akio Matsumura

This article is available in Japanese.

Since the accident at the Fukuhsima Daichi nuclear power plants, I have presented the opinions of several eminent scientists on the Fukushima disaster and we have received many insightful responses.  I as a layman am learning new terminologies and of potential problems that could continue to affect the area for hundreds of years.

From population to democracy, the issues I have studied in four decades of international work seem rather shortsighted when compared to a potential nuclear disaster that would affect our descendants for perhaps twenty thousand years.

As you are well aware, in January 2011 I began a campaign for the global survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The strong supporting articles several experts have contributed have encouraged me, and many political friends assure me that the message will not go unheard. They concur that my proposal is timely and would help increase the public awareness of risks associated with nuclear weapons.

However, the Fukushima nuclear disaster has convinced me that this campaign does not fully address the nuclear issue. I am now worried that nuclear power plants present a comparable risk to that of nuclear weapons—leaked radiation can make large areas uninhabitable for centuries. The area around Fukushima may come to be one. Thinking of the possible magnitude of such a disaster has led me to consider the balance between world energy needs and safety for human civilization.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convened a high-level meeting on Nuclear Safety and Security on September 22, 2011, during the 66th UN General Assembly.… Continue reading

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Fading Memories and Lessons Learned

By Dr. Scott Jones

In a series appropriately named Lessons Learned, the U.S. military takes pride in documenting what it has learned from battles and campaigns. The assumption being that this record will guide strategies and tactics in future wars. The irony is not lost to the professional warrior that the major lesson to be learned from every war is that the next war starts with failure: peace has been lost.

A host of lessons were learned during my thirty years of military service.  While many memories have faded, some never will.  One in particular has specific relevance to the core purpose of this article.  In October 1952, on my second Korean War tour as a jet fighter pilot flying off a U.S. aircraft carrier, I was flying a low-level armed reconnaissance mission over North Korea.  U.S. forces controlled the air, and North Korean and Chinese forces rarely tried to move troops and supplies during the day.  Expectations were therefore low to see any movement of a military nature.  The assigned road for this mission made a zigzag climb out of the valley onto a plain leading to the Chinese border.  This was the end of my route and time to climb to a higher altitude for a direct return to the carrier task group.  However, as I climbed out of the valley I saw an oxcart on the road being escorted by soldiers.  The disciplined soldiers in their winter-white uniforms dove for protection into the deep ditches on either side of the road. … Continue reading

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Admiral Noel Gayler’s Call for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons

Bill Wickersham
Adjunct Professor of Peace Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia

C.B. Scott Jones
President, Peace & Emergency Action Coalition for Earth (P.E.A.C.E., Inc.)

 

Admiral Noel Gayler, a World War II Navy pilot who served as the sixth director of the National Security Agency, and as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Command in the 1970s, died on July 14, 2011 at the age of 96. He was one of several retired, high-ranking U.S. military officers who have called for the abolition of nuclear weapons from Planet Earth.

In December, 2000, Gayler published “A Proposal for Achieving Zero Nuclear Weapons” .  In that article, he said: “The argument for a nuclear component is no longer valid. The time is now for a concrete proposal that meets the problem. Process, as opposed to negotiating numbers, is the basic principle of the proposal that I suggest. It is nothing less than drastic: the continuing reduction to zero of weapons in the hands of avowed nuclear powers, plus an end to the nuclear ambitions of others.”

Recently, in response to Admiral Gayler’s passing, Dr. David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Santa Barbara, California, outlined some of the common illusions surrounding the purported value of nuclear weapons which were included in Gayler’s proposal.  Those illusions include the following misconceptions:

  • Physical defense against nuclear weapons is possible;
  • Nuclear weapons can be used in a sensible manner;
  • Nuclear disarmament imperils our security; and
  • Nuclear deterrence is an effective defense.

Additionally, Krieger noted that  “Admiral Gayler’s proposal involves the delivery of all nuclear weapons to a central point where they would be irreversibly dismantled.”… Continue reading

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Push for the Prize: An Indigenous Perspective


A Nobel Prize for Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: An Indigenous Perspective

 by Steven Newcomb (Shawnee/Lenape) | Indigenous Law Institute

Mr. Akio Matsumura has proposed that a Noble Peace Prize be awarded to the remaining survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a reminder and a lesson to the world against the horrors of nuclear war. It is a timely and excellent suggestion.

Those survivors remind us that war and dehumanization are inextricably intertwined; to commit acts of war, by killing, maiming, or incinerating one’s fellow human beings, in the name of flag, country, race, creed, color, or religion, it is necessary to first become detached and desensitized by seeing one’s fellow human beings as “less-than-human.”

The dwindling number of remaining survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki come from many countries of the world; not just Japanese people were impacted. The survivors are living testimony to the magnitude of destruction that humans are capable of through processes of dehumanization: scientific and technological ingenuity utilized in the most heinous and deadly manner on a mass scale. Those who perished horribly on that fateful day in 1945 and the living survivors are a reminder of the importance of peace for all living things.

The meaning of the word “peace,” however, is a matter of context and purpose. The historian Tacitus said of the Romans: “They make a desert and call it peace.” The dropping of the atom bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki left such a desert, a radioactive one.
… Continue reading
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Push for the Prize: A Response from Professor Martin Hellman

I am pleased to second Mr. Akio Matsumara’s proposal that the Nobel Peace Prize be awarded to the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Here are some of the reasons:

1. The efforts of the A-bomb survivors (hibakusha) to alert the world to the danger we face from relying on the unproven doctrine of nuclear deterrence is of utmost importance. Most people find it difficult or impossible to comprehend the horror of a nuclear attack, and the hibakusha’s personal experiences are able to overcome that barrier, helping us to conceive the inconceivable.

 

 

Dr. Martin Hellman, Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University

 

2. The prize would be a recognition of the role these people have played in improving the prospects for peace. It would not blame either the United States for dropping the bombs or Japan for its own atrocities. Blame is one of the root causes of war and has no place in a Nobel Peace Prize. Efforts, such as those of Mr. Yoshida to bring reconciliation should be highlighted. Mr. Yoshida is a survivor who survived Hiroshima and whose brother died there, yet moved to the Philippines to honor those who died at the hands of the Japanese military.

3. As Mr. Matsumara notes in his proposal, the victims were not just Japanese, but included many nationalities. While it should not matter, this helps illuminate the universal harm wrought by nuclear weapons. To a nuclear weapon, Americans, Japanese, and other nationalities all appear the same — matter to be vaporized, irradiated or otherwise harmed.… Continue reading

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Push for the Prize: A Response from Professor Bill Wickersham

Dear Mr. Matsumura,

I have recently read your very compelling article “The Powerful and Fading Message of Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s Global Survivors:  The Case for a Group Nobel Prize.” As a long time professor of peace studies, and one who has promoted nuclear disarmament for almost 50 years, I think your blog and Nobel Peace Prize campaign are very critical elements for the promotion of a worldwide movement for the abolition of nuclear weapons from Planet Earth.

Bill Wickersham, Adjunct Professor of Peace Studies, University of Missouri

 

Over the years, my sub-specialty in educational psychology and peace studies has been the problem of social and psychological obstacles which hinder personal, group, national and international efforts to mobilize public demand for the elimination of the omnicidal threat.  Unfortunately, those obstacles, including ignorance, denial and apathy, have blocked most such mobilization, with the possible exception of the worldwide ” Nuclear Freeze ” movement of the 1980s, which was aimed more at arms control than truly deep cuts and abolition of nuclear weapons.

Historically, hundreds of fine non-governmental organizations have provided excellent research, information and program/action recommendations aimed at citizen involvement on behalf of nuclear disarmament.  In so doing, the NGOs have provided essential data for the “head” but, in large measure, have failed to truly reach the “heart”  of their audiences in a way that strongly moves people to action.

One major exception to this failing was the project initiated by my former boss, noted editor and peace advocate, the late Norman Cousins, who in 1955, brought 25 young female Japanese A-bomb survivors to the United States for plastic surgery, other medical treatment, and meetings with prominent U.S.… Continue reading