Activists
Activist Interviews
In order to understand youth nuclear protest in Japan, 4 local activists were interviewed. These are the highlights from each interview.
Nuclear disarmament is largely driven by Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Youth there receive special education regarding nuclear history and have their own textbooks specifically dedicated to that topic.
Only a minority of Japanese Diet politicians support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
Certain media like Barefoot Gen were important to the activists’ understanding of nuclear history.
The Japanese government and some younger Japanese are concerned about being so close to North Korea and Russia (nuclear-possessing states with cool relations with Japan).
As hibakusha age, more and more hibakusha who can tell their stories will have been newborns during the bombing, meaning that they draw less on memory and more on what family have told them.
Younger activists are expanding their activities to Tokyo, the political center of Japan that historically hasn’t led the nuclear disarmament movement.
Major Takeaways
Suzuka Nakamura
Suzuka. Source: ICAN Nuclear Ban Week Vienna
Born in Nagasaki, Suzuka is a third-generation A-bomb survivor through her grandmother. She has been a nuclear abolition activist since high school. She was part of “HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI Peace Messengers.” where she collected signatures supporting nuclear abolition for the UN. She is the co-founder of the Tokyo-based organization KNOW NUKES TOKYO. She is a campaigner for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). She has spoken at the Second Meeting of State Parties in the UN.
Highlights
Nuclear disarmament is a significant issue but many Japanese think of it as a past issue.
The nuclear abolition movement is largely concentrated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Japanese politicians aren’t very interested in supporting the TPNW. Through her research, she found that only 36% of politicians support the TPNW.
Most other politicians have ambivalent opinions regarding the TPNW.
In Nagasaki, one reason why people didn’t discuss nuclear weapons was because, after the bombing, it was a city that received aid from American Catholics.
When peace studies (curriculum in schools specifically designed to discuss nuclear weapons issues and disarmament) started in Nagasaki, the government and civil society weren’t supportive of the work. Peace studies has only been around for about 30 years.
She believes that a significant minority of Japanese aren’t supportive of nuclear weapons but the majority aren’t sure what to think of nuclear weapons.
Outside of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Okinawa, there isn’t much nuclear disarmament work being driven by civil society or government.
As a student in Nagasaki, she was able to have a unique education regarding nuclear weapons where she encountered hibakusha face to face, folded paper cranes at school, and a peace activity club.
Hibakusha are getting older so now many of the hibakusha who can discuss surviving Hiroshima and Nagasaki are usually 1-2 years old whereas when Suzuka was growing up, more of the hibakusha were young children with specific memories.
As a culture, Japanese want to be politically neutral. It isn’t common to be particularly left wing or right wing.
Many journalistic institutions receive funding from the government so while journalistic groups look different on the surface, Suzuka believes that they are largely saying the same things.
Yuki Tamaki
Yuki. Source: Yuki Tamaki (taken by Charlotte Yeung)
Highlights
The Japanese government thinks that they need nuclear weapons for national security. Being close to North Korea and Russia (nuclear possessing states with whom they have unfriendly relationships with) creates an unstable international environment.
Some people in Japan don’t think abolishing nuclear weapons is possible because of national security reasons.
People in Tokyo are more likely to believe in keeping nuclear weapons. Hiroshima and Nagasaki have strong emotional and historical reasons for not keeping nuclear weapons.
She started 核のち晴れ to bring nuclear awareness to Japan’s city of national decisionmaking.
Her education regarding nuclear weapons was a bit different from the average Japanese kid. As a child, she watched Barefoot Gen (an anime about hibakusha experience after the nuclear bomb) in a children’s center after school. She went on school field trips to sites like the Peace Memorial Museum and park. She guided a tour of New Zealand students through the park in high school. She made origami peace art in school.
Like Nagasaki, Hiroshima has a peace education curriculum though it did not face as much pushback as Nagasaki when it was being established. Hiroshima recently removed Barefoot Gen from their peace education textbooks, causing controversy in the nuclear abolition community (read Keita’s interview highlights for more information).
Though Japan’s history with nuclear weapons is terrible, it’s also important to note that Japan plays different roles depending on the context. For example, Hiroshima was a military city during World War II. In the modern day, Japan deprives other countries of their natural resources.
Yuki Tamaki is a nuclear activist from Hiroshima who is related to hibakusha. She is the founder of 核のち晴れ where she plans to meet with Tokyo politicians and council members to discuss nuclear abolition. She is part of the Young Civil group In Nuclear Abolishment (カクワカ広島(核政策を知りたい広島若者有権者の会).
Keita Takagaki
Keita. Source: Keita Takagaki
Keita Takagaki is the descendent of doctors who treated hibakusha after the bombing of Hiroshima. In high school, he joined the newspaper club where he interviewed hibakusha. He is a youth representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). He has spoken at the Second Meeting of State Parties in the UN.
Highlights
SNS is particularly helpful with sharing information with others. TV and newspapers significantly influence people on a large scale who may have not previously known much about this issue.
As a student in Hiroshima, it was easy for him to learn about disarmament issues and start disarmament work as his hometown had many opportunities. His elementary and junior high schools were public schools with peace education programs focused on the city’s and citizens’ recoveries from the bombing. One catalyst for his work was a speech context in junior high school. He ended up giving a speech on his grandfathers’ experiences as doctors and hibakusha in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Hiroshima has many preserved sites including the Hiroshima army clothing depot, called “Hihukusho” in local words. These buildings were once used as warehouses for Japanese army facilities and preserved military clothing from 1914 to 1945. In the aftermath of the bombing, numerous injuries escaped from the epicentre to the place, and most of them passed away.
High school education surrounding nuclear weapons has changed in Hiroshima recently. In 2023, the content that used a scene from a famous manga regarding the Hiroshima bombing, “Barefoot Gen,” disappeared. In addition to this, the following contents disappeared simultaneously: the Daigo Fukuryumaru(Lucky Dragon), which was exposed to radiation by nuclear testing, Bravo in the Marshall Islands on 1st March 1954 and medical assistants by Dr Marcel Junod, who was head of ICRC Japan delegation in those days. Many hibakusha and citizens disagree with these decisions.
He started his work as a high school student. Then he went on to join the 1st and 2nd meeting of state parties of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclearj Weapons (TPNW) as a youth representative for the ICRC. He is also the co-founder of Youth Community for Global Hibakusha a project aimed towards Japanese youth meant to discuss and educate young people about the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons use and testing.
Yuki Tokuda
Yuki. Source: (ひと）徳田悠希さん 核廃絶とジェンダー平等めざす団体を設立した
Highlights
Yuki isn’t from Hiroshima or Nagasaki. But she went to a private school in Tokyo where she read Barefoot Gen had the opportunity to visit Hiroshima in a school field trip and talked with a hibakusha.
Private schools give teachers more control over what they teach. In Yuki’s case, she was given a more comprehensive education related to the humanitarian effects of nuclear weapons.
Schools often ask her organization to give talks to their students.
When she started her work, there were no Tokyo-based disarmament groups.
Some people support Japanese nuclear sharing because of concerns about the war in Ukraine.
Because of the NPT, Japan can’t house nuclear weapons nor share them.
The older generation has lived history and experience with World War II and care deeply about removing nuclear weapons. The younger generation is more concerned about national security.
Yuki Tokuda is the founder and leader of 2 nuclear abolition groups: GeNuine, a nuclear abolition group focused on the intersection between nuclear weapons and gender, and 議員ウォッチ, a group focused on researching Japanese Diet politicians’ views of the TPNW. She is also part of the Japan Network for Abolition of Nuclear Weapons.