Japanese survivor of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings dies of stomach cancer at age 93

Tsutomu Yamaguchi , who as fate would have it was present and injured in Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, only to arrive back to his home in Nagasaki to experience the second atomic bombing on August 9th, has passed away. After his ordeal, he devoted his life -- as have many Hibakusha, survivors of the atom bombs -- to sharing his tragic experience with others, in hopes of the abolition of atomic weapons. While Yamaguchi is the only person officially certified by the Japanese government as having survived both atomic bombings, there are others who did as well. To advance the cause of nuclear weapons abolition, please sign yourself, your friends, and family onto the Mayors for Peace "Cities Are Not Targets" (CANT) online petition. Mayors for Peace, initiated by the Cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has grown to nearly 3,500 cities in 135 countries. If your city has not joined joined, urge your city leaders to do so. Latent cancer deaths among survivors from radiation exposure during the atomic bombings are now grudgingly acknowledged by the atomic establishment, although this was not always the case. As Amy and David Goodman has exposed, William L. Laurence, science writer for the New York Times who was also on the payroll of the U.S. War Department, a propogandist for the Manhattan Project, and who rode on the plane that destroyed Nagasaki, won a Pulitzer Prize for his atomic bomb reporting despite intentionally covering up the deadly radiation effects on human health, truth censored by the U.S. military when other journalists attempted to report it.

START off to a good start

Reproduced from the Daisy Alliance newsletter: One of the more prominent nuclear issues in 2010 is the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review.  Will the U.S. finally decrease their reliance on nuclear weapons as a policy tool or continue with its same Cold War attitudes?  A recent Arms Control Wonk blog post by Jeffrey Lewis, "Declaratory Policy," reviews the nuclear posture review deliberations and analyzes potential policy outcomes.Good news in the ongoing Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 1) extension negotiations.  Guy Faulconbridge reports in Reuters India that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated Tuesday that both Russia and the U.S. are planning to make unprecedented reductions to their nuclear arsenals.  Negotiators failed to produce an extension document prior to the expiration of START 1 in December.  This article also discusses some of the technical issues that have prevented a completed extension treaty.

Has your city signed the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol?

Cities across the world, inspired by the leadership of  the Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision campaign, are calling on world leaders to abolish nuclear weapons completely by the year 2020. The vehicle for this campaign is the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, signed by 762 cities fom 49 countries. There are, however, only a little over 20 U.S. cities currently signed on. Please encourage your mayor to include your city in the campaign. The fundamental message of the Protocol is that if the world is to disarm, then the discriminatory nature of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - that, among other things, exempts nuclear weapons signatories from the prohibition or the acquisition of nuclear weapons - cannot persist.

Why France is opposed to nuclear disarmament

As French physicist, Dominque Lalanne, pointed out during at talk at the recent Sortir du Nucléaire conference in Colmar, France is quietly opposed to atomic disarmament whatever the public posture. Nuclear weapons have been equated with power in Europe ever since the conclusion of World War II (the U.K. also posseses nuclear weapons, Germany and Italy do not). In France, the president, currently Nicolas Sarkozy, controls the CEA (Commissariat àl’énergie atomique), Areva and the military. This means that Sarkozy controls the bombs and the reactors. As Lalanne pointed out, in selling reactors, Sarkozy is also fundamentally selling theopportunity to make the bomb. Reactors, according to Lalanne, are simply the "alibi" used by non-nuclear weapons countries to aquire te bomb. Read a speech by Lalanne given last year in Malmo, Sweden, on the challenges of a nuclear-armed France. And watch Lalanne on video describe how Sarkozy could derail the disarmament process.

 

Join the International Youth Dialogue for Nuclear Disarmament

The Project for Nuclear Awareness is hosting the International Youth Dialogue October 26th-27th 2009. The Dialogue will link students, youth and young professionals in Philadelphia, Geneva, Mexico City, Moscow, and Santa Barbara via live video conference and will focus on building a comprehensive campaign for a nuclear weapons-free world. The Dialogue will feature disarmament expert Dr. Hans Blix, President of the World Federation of United Nations Associations, Alyn Ware of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament and student leaders from Physicians for Social Responsibility, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and Ban All Nukes Generation USA. Registration for the Philadelphia Venue and Mexico City Venue is now available. More information can be found on the flier. Organized by the Project for Nuclear Awareness and Ban All Nukes Generation. Interested in Co-sponsorship or becoming a youth leader? Have questions about the Dialogue? Contact Emily at emily.pna@gmail.com , 215 546 3030.