Comment from the Mayor Regarding the First Anniversary of the TPNW

January 22 marks the first anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). However, the international situation remains tense: we have seen mutual distrust deepen amongst the United States, Russia, and European nations concerning the Ukraine, and a struggle for supremacy between the United States and China concerning topics such as Taiwan. In addition, nuclear-weapon states, using these strained international circumstances as an excuse, have poured enormous sums of money into enhancing their nuclear capabilities and modernizing their nuclear weapons in competition with one another. It is deeply alarming that the present situation does not reflect the fervent will of the hibakusha, which served as the driving force for the TPNW.

Under these circumstances, on January 3 this year, the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states, recognized by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), issued a joint statement in which they affirmed, for the first time, the 1985 Reagan-Gorbachev maxim that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” Just as the leaders of the United States and Russia once built a relationship of trust and held discussions which led to substantial reduction in their nuclear arsenals and a step toward nuclear abolition, it remains now for the world leaders of these five nations to take concrete actions in line with their statement, which is so full of the sentiment of all citizens and hibakusha who share in the Will of Hiroshima, toward the realization of a world without nuclear weapons, such as the adoption of no-first-use policies, discussion of sole purpose policy, or participation in the Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW.

Recalling that it was the ardent desire of the hibakusha that facilitated the entry into force of the TPNW, the City of Hiroshima will, together with Mayors for Peace member cities, work to create consensus in civil society that a world free from nuclear weapons is the only world that humanity should strive for, and create an environment that encourages policymakers to take radical shifts in policy toward nuclear abolition, liberated from the nuclear deterrence theory.

January 21, 2022

MATSUI Kazumi
Mayor
The City of Hiroshima