Building a Peaceful Tomorrow for Future Generations

Report Written by Bobby Verhey

On Monday, NAPF-RTT youth activists attended an event titled “Building a Peaceful Tomorrow for Future Generations” in New York, which was sponsored by Peace Boat, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, its youth initiative Reverse the Trend, Hibakusha Stories, and the New York Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.  This event spotlighted the ongoing hardship that individuals throughout the world face from the past use of nuclear weapons and emphasized the importance of activism in the field of nuclear disarmament to prevent the future use of another nuclear bomb. Speakers included: Ms. Toshiko Tanaka and Mr. Tadayoshi Ogawa, two hibakushas; Ms. Mary Dickson,  American downwinder and thyroid cancer survivor from Salt Lake City, Utah; and Mr. Benetick Kabua Maddison, the Executive Director of the Marshallese Educational Initiative and advisor for Reverse The Trend. 

Toshiko Tanaka, a hibakusha from Hiroshima, detailed her experiences as a six-year-old when the bomb was dropped. In her account, she emotively described the ongoing PTSD she experienced from the blast and its aftermath. In one of the many impactful moments in her address, Tanaka said “All of my classmates are dead.” To this day, Tanaka still struggles when she sees the skin of roasted tomatoes fall off at a barbecue, as they invoke the visuals of her classmates that she saw in August of 1945.

Tadayoshi Ogawa, a hibakusha from Nagasaki, was one year old when the bomb dropped. He told his account of how hibakushas were given little to no knowledge of the radioactive fallout. His family repeatedly went back into the heart of Nagasaki, unknowingly increasing their exposure to radiation from the bomb.

Mary Dickson, a downwind victim of nuclear testing from Utah, shed light on the effects of nuclear testing conducted by the US government on its own people. Dickson, as well as numerous family members and people in her community, were diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She said that people downwind of the Nevada tests “are victims of the Cold War,” though they will never have flags draped over their caskets. She also called on individuals in the United States to reach out to their congressional representatives to pass the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, a compensation package for affected communities that just expired. The bill passed the Senate but has not been brought to the House floor.

Benetick Kabua Maddison, Executive Director of the Marshallese Educational Initiative and Adviser of Reverse The Trend, finished the remarks by raising awareness about the humanitarian and environmental impacts of nuclear testing on the citizens of the Marshall Islands as well as its lasting intergenerational impacts.