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WHY SHOULD WE ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Hiromichi Umebayashi
SEPTEMBER 2009 (IPS) - Why should we abolish nuclear weapons? This apparently naive
question seems to have become a matter of debate, writes Hiromichi
Umebayashi, founder and special advisor of Peace Depot, Inc. Japan.
In this article, the author writes that in Japan there is a
deep-rooted desire for nuclear abolition that derives from its
first-hand experience of the appalling damage caused by nuclear
weapons. Yet this does not seem to be enough to constitute a
successful argument for "a world free of nuclear weapons". The
effort to bring about a nuclear abolition must be indivisibly and
essentially integrated with the challenge of creating a more
equitable, just, and humane global society.
The need for a global solution to problems like
poverty and climate change is a given, as if tacitly mandated by
the standards that guide civilised human society. Nuclear
abolition, in contrast, tends to be confined within the
category of weapons linked to national security. It is not seen as
a moral and global moral issue. To succeed, the nuclear abolition
movement must be brought into a wider sphere of people's
thinking.
(*) Hiromichi Umebayashi is founder and special advisor of Peace
Depot, Inc. Japan. He holds a PhD in applied physics.
//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND,
THE UNITED STATES, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM// (END/2009)
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