From Hiroshima to the Pacific, Official Side Event to 2MSP
Written by Brock Walker | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and Reverse The Trend
On Thursday, November 30th, 2023, the Mission of Kiribati, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Reverse The Trend: Save Our People, Save Our Planet, Marshallese Educational Initiative, and The Prospect Hill Foundation co-sponsored a side event on the humanitarian and environmental impact of nuclear weapons’ use and testing in the broader Pacific community. The panelists included: Keita Takagaki, ICRC Japan Youth; Asuka Oka, RTT Activist; Dr. Becky Alexis Martin, Lecturer of Peace and International Development, University of Bradford; Tinabora Ionae, Youth Delegate from Kiritimati; Benetick Kabua Maddison, Executive Director, Marshallese Educational Initiative, and Maverick Peter Seda, Youth Coordinator, Reverse The Trend Pacific.
H.E. Ambassador Teburoro Tito chaired the discussion, with the aim to connect the impacts of nuclear weapons to the positive obligations enumerated in Articles 6 and 7 of the TPNW. The positive obligations ensure both victim assistance to communities exposed to nuclear weapons use and testing and environmental remediation to contaminated areas. The TPNW is the only international treaty in arms control that recognizes the needs of affected communities and environments. This is quintessential in any attempt to move towards a world free from nuclear weapons.
On August 6th and 9th of 1945, the United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons. The Hibakusha community, the survivors, experienced generational impacts due to nuclear weapons use, as their environment and health were devastated. Mr. Keita and Ms. Oka provided testimony on their personal experiences as youth activists seeking justice for the discrimination Hibakusha have faced and global nuclear disarmament. The challenges to health and stigma Hibakusha and their children face are a testament to the lasting impacts of nuclear weapons use and the multi-generational need for the States parties to implement the humanitarian provisions contained in Articles 6 and 7 of the TPNW.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki represent the opening chapter in the Pacific experience of nuclear weapons. Specifically, following the aftermath of the destructive impact of nuclear weapons in Japan, France, United Kingdom, and the US conducted a series of nuclear tests in the Pacific further to develop new and destructive weapons of mass destruction. The Marshallese, i-Kiribati, and all Polynesians, were impacted by numerous atmospheric, underground, and underwater nuclear weapons tests conducted between 1951 and 1996.
Highlighting the tragic impact of 33 nuclear tests near Kiritimati Island, Dr. Martin noted the medical impact of these tests on the community living on Kiritimati Island. She also highlighted the disproportionate suffering of women as their reproductive systems were attacked by ionizing radiation. Ms. Ionae provided moving personal testimony about her family’s generational experience with the health consequences of testing. Demonstrating personal evidence of testing’s continued plight in these communities, Ms. Ionae underscored the necessity for youth activism and the positive obligations of the TPNW to assist and mitigate these consequences.
Examining history, both the present and the future, is necessary to understand the positive obligations of Articles 6 and 7. Mr. Maddison provided testimony to the Marshallese perspective under the context of an inadequate and offensive Compact Treaty with the US in illustrating how these positive obligations can assist and remediate the damage inflicted on their communities. As climate change afflicts the Pacific disproportionately, Mr. Seda urgently called for environmental remediation in the face of a broadening scope of contamination.
H.E. Ambassador Tito ended the discussion by expressing his gratitude for the broader Pacific community in fighting for justice, especially as it relates to countering false narratives that downplay the impact of testing from nuclear-armed states. It is only through international cooperation that the history of nuclear weapons can be rectified–and left unrepeated.