Beyond Nuclear - NUCLEAR WEAPONS

The Olympics and peace: Sign the appeal for a moment of silence on August 6

The Olympics were founded as a peace initiative - with a truce declared before and during the ancient games. This Olympic Truce ideal was revived in the modern Olympics, and is promoted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Olympic Truce Foundation, United Nations (see UN and Olympic Truce) and the Olympic Truce Centre.

During the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, this ideal was embodied in the Korean Olympic peace initiative, which opened the door to North-South Korean and Korean-USA summits, and the start of a peace and denuclearisation process for the Korean Peninsula.

There were hopes that this peace tradition would be continued with the 2020 (now 2021) Olympics. Indeed, the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki originally put in a joint bid to host the 2020 Olympics and call them the Peace Olympics, especially as 2020 was the 75th anniversary of the nuclear bombings of their two cities. However, this bid was rejected by the Japan Olympic Committee, and Tokyo instead won the rights to host the Olympics.

In an effort to have at least a small, but significant, gesture for peace included at these Olympics, Tadatoshi Akiba, former Mayor of Hiroshima has appealed to the IOC to hold a minute of silence on August 6 in commemoration of the anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and in support of a nuclear-weapon-free world.

You can support the appeal as an individual (appeal in Japanese) or as an organization (appeal in English).

* Nuclear Games is developed by Docmine, a Swiss-based creative studio and produced in the English and German languages. Youth Fusion - along with Physicians for Social Responsibility/IPPNW Switzerland, Basel Peace Office and World Future Council - are facilitating its distribution and promotion. For more info see As the Olympic Games begin, “Nuclear Games” counters pro-nuclear messages with an animated web-documentary.

● The Nation magazine features Nuclear Games ●
● Nuclear Games: Youth-led and for youth ●
● Sign the Appeal for a minute silence at Olympic Games on August 6 ●

Dear Kevin,

On July 23, the eve of the Olympic Games, we* launched Nuclear Games, a new film and an animated web-documentary addressing humanity's nuclear history and the risks and impacts of nuclear weapons and energy.

The web-documentary includes five manga stories from the nuclear age, while the film highlghts the contradictions between the Tokyo Olympics - an event supposedly supporting peace and humanity - with the continued global nuclear arms race, and the apparent disregard of the host country Japan to the health and political impacts of the Fukushima nuclear power disaster and the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (See The Olympics and peace below).

On July 29, the Nation Magazine published a lead article by Basel Peace Office Director Alyn Ware entitiled 'Tokyo’s Games Are Harming the Nuclear Weapons Ban Movement', which focuses on the nuclear politics of Japan and the Tokyo Olympics, and features the launch of Nuclear Games.

By paying lip service to the Fukushima disaster and the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan, these games are downplaying the growing danger of a nuclear catastrophe.
Alyn Ware, The Nation Magazine, July 29, 2021

Nuclear Games: Youth-led and for youth

Nuclear Games was established primarily to attract, inform and engage the next generation in nuclear issues. It features five stories of the nuclear age, from the Soviet sub-marine commander who averted a nuclear war during the Cuban Missile crisis, to uranium mining and hostage taking in Niger, the Bikini islanders who are homeless due to nuclear testing, the sad fates of the liquidators in the Chernobyl disaster, and the North Korean nuclear weapons threat.

The five 'manga' stories are told through pop-culture animation mixed with documentary footage, using leading edge interactive technology. It's launch event was organised by Youth Fusion, the youth section of the Abolition 2000 global network for the elimination of nuclear weapons. The panelists were youth leaders in peace, human rights, climate action, sustainable development and disarmament from around the world.