Beyond Nuclear - NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Dear Friends,

Basel Peace Office has joined more than 120 organizations globally in supporting the appeal of former Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba to the International Olympic Committee to hold a moment of silence at the Olympic Games on August 6 in memory of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and in support of world peace.

Basel Peace Office Director Alyn Ware joined Mayor Akiba in a press conference earlier today to advance this call. Below are some comments from the press conference. For more on this, please see the blog article on our website Former Hiroshima Mayor Akiba steps up his call for an Olympics moment of silence on August 6.

An Olympic moment of silence on August 6?

"The International Olympic Committee (IOC) should uphold the historical Olympic ideal for peace by holding a moment of silence on August 6, the 76^th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima," says Mr Tadatoshi Akiba, former Mayor of Hiroshima and former President of Mayors for Peace.

‘The Olympic truce was inseparable from the Ancient Olympic Games, and has been reaffirmed in principle by the IOC and the United Nations,’ said Mr Akiba, speaking at a press conference earlier today. ‘Since Japan is the hosting country this time, the peace-oriented emphasis of the Olympic Games leads us naturally to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two symbol cities of peace worldwide.’

IOC rejects the request

The IOC announced on August 1 that it would not hold a moment of silence on August 6, in response to requests from Hiroshima City and an organization of atom bomb survivors (see Tokyo Olympics not to observe moment of silence for A-bomb victims, Kyodo News, Aug 1, 2021). This is supposedly in line with the IOC policy not to allow or facilitate political protests at the Olympics, which some athletes are already challenging.

However, the call for a moment of silence is different. ‘A moment of silence on August 6 would not be a protest,’ said Mr Alyn Ware, Director of the Basel Peace Office and Member of Peace and Sport. ‘It would be a non-political, dignified and respectful way to uphold the Olympic Truce ideal and mark the significance of the Olympic Games being held in Japan.’

The Olympics and the Truce Ideal

"During the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, the Olympic Truce Ideal was embodied in the Korean Olympic peace initiative, a diplomatic action, starting with the joint North/South Korea women’s ice hockey team, that opened the door to North-South Korean and Korean-USA summits and the start of a peace and denuclearisation process for the Korean Peninsula. It would be entirely appropriate for the IOC to mark the Japan Olympics with a solemn and dignified moment of recognition of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and the leadership of these cities for global peace."
Alyn Ware, Director Basel Peace Office and Member of Peace and Sport, speaking at the Press Conference on the Olympic Moment of Silence Appeal.

Time for IOC to change its mind

"There is still time for the IOC to change its mind," says Mayor Akiba. ‘The IOC and the Japan Olympic Committee were able to change overnight their plans for in-person spectators at the Olympic games once it became apparent that having such spectators would exacerbate the covid infection rate amongst athletes and Japanese citizens. The IOC could also respond overnight to our appeal to mark August 6 with a dignified and respectful moment of silence.’

‘However, if they don’t, perhaps some of the athletes themselves will undertake their own moment of silence at 8:15am on August 6^th, the time of the detonation of the nuclear bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima,’ concluded Mayor Akiba.

For the full blog article please see Former Hiroshima Mayor Akiba steps up his call for an Olympics moment of silence on August 6