Demo against G7’s nuclear war

The International Solidarity Rally against Hiroshima G7 summit

On May 20, an international solidarity rally against the G7 Hiroshima summit was held at the Minami Ward Community Cultural Center, with 300 participants.

Ryo Miyahara, secretary general of the August 6 Hiroshima Grand Action Organizing Committee, called for organizing strong struggles against the G7 headed by the U.S. “They blame nuclear armament of Russia, China and North Korea, using the name of Hiroshima and ‘the ideal of a world without nuclear weapons,’ while they have been rushing toward a nuclear war.”

A nuclear survivor from Nagasaki, Miyako Jodai, sent her message condemning Fumio Kishida and other G7 leader who promote a nuclear war; “Stop repeating the unspeakable inferno, in which human beings were not allowed to live and die humanely!”

An activist from Fukushima called for a fight to stop dumping of radioactive water into the ocean. A speaker from Okinawa, who has been fighting construction of sortie bases in Nansei Islands, also expressed their determination to fight alongside Hiroshima. Messages of solidarity from around the world, including South Korea, Turkey, Italy and the United States were also read. Workers and unions in Hiroshima spoke of their fervent determination to restrengthen of the labor movement which fight unflinchingly against war. A student from Hiroshima University appealed to take back all of the comrades arrested during the demo against the summit, including a Hiroshima University students detained since the May 18 demo.

At the end of the rally, Yasuhiro Ikkanda , a second-generation survivor, read out a joint appeal from Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors and their second and third generations.

The march toward the summit venue

The second march toward the A-bomb Dome

After the rally, a militant demon was held in the direction to Ujina, the site of the summit. The riot police unjustly pushed demonstrators, surrounding from the front, back, left, and right, and formed police walls to block interaction with passersby; many people, however, joined the march.

At 3:30 p.m., the second demo of the day marched from Otemachi Second Park near City Hall toward the A-bomb Dome. The police were exhausted by our continuous demonstrations, but the demos. The protesters, in contrast, fought with great enthusiasm and determination against Volodymyr Zelensky’s presence at tomorrow’s summit.

A-bomb survivors, their 2nd & 3rd gens issue Appeal

The leaders of the G7, who are the very agents of bringing war, poverty, radioactive contamination and global environmental devastation and the promoters of nuclear armament of their countries, refusing to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), are now on a visit to Hiroshima from the day before yesterday and are holding the summit. What is the aim of holding the G7 summit in Hiroshima, the very A-bombed city, which has experienced the first ever nuclear disaster for the humanity.
Firstly, they are intending continuation and escalation of the war in Ukraine for the interest of imperialism. Suppressing the voices of demanding, “Russia and NATO, hands off Ukraine! Stop the war now!”, mounting all over the world, they are sending a large amount of weapons and war funds to Ukraine. Japanese prime minister, Kishida, who recently visited Ukraine and is hosting the G7 summit, aims at military participation in the Ukrainian war through offering lethal weapons.
Secondly, the agenda of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, especially for the U.S. and Japan, is set for the preparation of war of aggression against China. While the countries of the G7 have long dominated the world by their military forces and financial powers, they are now threatening China declaring, “’We stand strongly against any?unilateral change?of the status quo, in particular by the use of force,’? ” and strengthening the drive for war. The Kishida government, openly abandoning the pacifist Japanese Constitution, has doubled the military budget, claiming to possess enemy base strike capability and is reinforcing military bases in Okinawa, Ryukyu islands, and all over Japan. Thus, the major aim of the G7 Hiroshima Summit is apparently the preparation for the war of aggression on China with Okinawa and South Korea as its sortie bases.
Thirdly, they are gathering in Hiroshima with the purpose of justifying their war under the deceitful words, “the path toward a world without nuclear weapons,”. They shamelessly claim that Russia and China must abandon their nukes and of the G7 countries headed by US should strengthen their nukes further. Hiroshima is going to be utilized as a place of outrageous propaganda for carrying out nuclear war under the name of “abolition of nukes”.
Seriously afraid of being exposed their lie and being surrounded by angry demonstrators, they have produced a state of siege―occupation of Hiroshima by the G7―, mobilizing over 40,000 police force from all over Japan, closing neighboring schools and kindergartens and forbidding the entry to the Peace Memorial Park. The mass media is used for “a conference for peace” propaganda in order to suppress the furious voices against the summit.
In face of these offensives, we have carried out yesterday two demonstrations with the slogan, “Crush G7 summit, the imperialist nuclear war conference” and succeeded in breaking down their vicious intention. We are continuing our fight-back against the G7 today and tomorrow.
We are now faced with an imminent world war, imperialist rivalry over the spheres of influence of the world as an inevitable explosion of the inherent contradictions of imperialism. The impending war is characterized as an antagonism between the G7 countries headed by the U.S., which is slipping down from the pivotal position in the world system, and China as “the largest competitor” of US imperialism and Russia. The world will inevitably be ruined if we leave the actual development under the command of ruling class whatever the course it takes. We vehemently refuse this road toward the total destruction. Our road is to oppose to the war policy of our own governments, to organize a storm of world-wide anti-war, anti-nuke struggle and to overthrow the existing ruling system, which has no other way for survival than to wage war, by the power of working-class people of the world.
We, the A-bomb survivors, their children and grandchildren, are firmly determined never to allow the repetition of the disasters of Hiroshima and Nagasaki not only for us but for all the people in the world today. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the catastrophic results of Japanese imperialist colonial rule over Asian people and the war of aggression. The Kishida government is engaged in desperate move of military buildup, strengthening of the war coalition and reshaping Japan into a “country capable of war” and utilization of Hiroshima as means to achieve these goals. These outrageous attempts shall never be permitted.
With this firm determination, we call on all the working class and people of the whole world to rise up together with us to oppose to the war drive of our own governments! Workers of the world, unite to prevent world nuclear war!

On behalf of the A-bomb survivors and their second and third generations:
Takeshi Nakashima (Association of Anti-war A-bomb survivors, the second generation)
Yasuhiro Ikkanda (National Youth League of A-bomb survivors, the second generation)
Ryo Miyahara (Secretary General of August 6 Hiroshima Grand Action Organizing Committee, the third generation)

Adopted by International Anti-war Hiroshima Assembly against Nuclear War on May 20

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