March 2, 2022
Tsuyoshi Masuda
President
Japan Federation of Democratic Medical Institutions

Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on a news program on February 27 that as some member countries of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) share nuclear weapons with the United States, Japan should not make it taboo to discuss the reality of how the world security is protected. Tatsuo Fukuda, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s chairman of the General Council, commented on a nuclear sharing policy at a press conference on March 1 by saying, “We must not avoid any discussion if we want to defend the people and the nation.” Regarding the principle of not allowing nuclear weapons into the country, one of Japan’s Three Non-nuclear Principles, LDP chair of the Policy Research Council Sanae Takaichi said at a press conference, “Debates about whether to make an exception only when the people’s safety is at stake should not be confined.”   

Japan, the only atomic-bombed nation, has maintained the Three Non-nuclear Principles (not to possess, manufacture, or allow nuclear weapons to be brought into Japan) as its national policy. The remarks of former Prime Minister Abe and other LDP senior members deny this postwar history.

Since the day when their bodies and minds were severely wounded, Hirbakusha (atomic-bomb victims) in Hiroshima and Nagasaki have struggled to survive. Bearing the regret of those who were not allowed to die as human beings by the atomic bomb, they have continued to raise their voice to ensure that there will never be another Hibakusha. The world responded to their demand, and finally in January 2021, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force. Now that nuclear weapons are outlawed under international law, such statements by parliamentarians of the only A-bombed country are unacceptable internationally as well as an outrage challenging the majority of the Japanese public calling on their government to join the TPNW.

The Japan Federation of Democratic Medical Institutions, which calls for the abolition of nuclear weapons and protection of peace and the environment in its mission statement and has continuously worked with Hibakusha, condemns and protests against the statements by former Prime Minister Abe and other LDP senior politicians.