From Hiroshima to Chornobyl

In late October Ukraine hosted a delegation from the Hiroshima Peace Mission. This project is dedicated to the sixtieth anniversary of a major tragedy in the history of humanity — the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Mission members are visiting countries with nuclear arsenals and zones of military conflicts. The goal of these visits is to convey the need for nuclear disarmament, peace, and forgiveness. For the project participants these are no empty phrases. Among them are survivors of the Hiroshima bombing. The head of the delegation to Ukraine is Hiromu Morishita. He was fourteen years old in September 1945, when the atomic bomb killed his mother and aunt. Hiromu had several operations and for many years was concerned about the health of his children. Concern for them and other children the world over compelled Hiromu, a retired schoolteacher, to embark on his antiwar mission.

“At first we thought that the tragedy of Hiroshima would never be repeated,” Mr. Morishita told Ukrainian journalists. “But, unfortunately, today the world is moving in the opposite direction. As before, nuclear weapons exist and continue to be developed, and even the peaceful atom is causing accidents. In Ukraine we obtained more details about the consequences of the Chornobyl disaster. Before today I didn’t realize the scale of this tragedy.”

According to Mr. Morishita, it is crucial for Ukraine to say “no” to nuclear weapons. “The Japanese and Ukrainians must join their efforts to prevent any more suffering from wars or radiation,” he said.

According to Chieko Kobatake, vice president of the Hiroshima-Semipalatinsk nongovernmental organization, the Japanese delegation were very affected by their visit to the Chornobyl exclusion zone and their encounters with former residents of Prypyat. At the same time, members of the Hiroshima Peace Mission got the impression that the Chornobyl programs are not receiving adequate funding and that the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant personnel do not have a sufficient supply of dosimeters, Ms. Kobatake said.

The Japanese delegation also visited Sevastopol, a nuclear waste storage facility in Balaklava, Kharkiv, and Pervomaisk, and met with dozens of Ukrainian officials, including presidential aide on national security Volodymyr Horbulin and Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryshchenko. All of them assured the participants of the Hiroshima Peace Mission that Ukraine would never revise its non-nuclear status, no matter what politicians may say on the eve of the elections. The Japanese delegation in turn assured Ukrainian officials and journalists that when they return home, they will be conveying what they saw in our country to as many people as possible and will be fostering bilateral cooperation for nuclear disarmament and overcoming the consequences of the Chornobyl disaster. Japan has invested heavily in these programs, contributing $45 million to the Chornobyl Shelter Fund.