Members of a group of atomic bomb survivors from Japan have held a discussion with university students in the United States. The members called for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
The members of Nihon Hidankyo, also known as the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, visited a university in New York on Tuesday. The group is attending a review conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or NPT, at UN headquarters.
One of those participating in the discussion was Matsuura Hideto, who was in his mother’s womb when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Another was Sugino Nobuko, who lived through the bombing at the age of one.
The two recounted their experiences to the students and exchanged opinions with them.
Asked whether they “hate Americans,” Sugino mentioned her mother, who lost two of her children in the bombing. She said, “My mother didn’t say she hated America, but rather that she hated war.”
Matsuura said: “A cycle of retaliation is not good. Striking back only aggravates conflicts and wars.”
The group’s secretary general, Hamasumi Jiro, was asked whether compensation should be sought from the US government. He said: “First, I want an apology. To show it means it, I want nuclear weapons to be eliminated.”
A student who also belongs to the US military said when he was at an American base in Okinawa, southwestern Japan, he visited Hiroshima and saw the impact that the attack had on the people in the city. He said he thinks nuclear arms “should stay always a last resort, beyond the last resorts, and kind of just hidden away knowing that we have it, but never to be touched.”