Protest letter against the US subcritical nuclear test (December 15, 2000)

December 15, 2000

The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton
The President
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
The United States of America

His Excellency Dr. Thomas Stephen Foley
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
of the United States of America
Embassy of the United States of America in Japan

Letter of Protest

On the 14th of this month, the United States conducted a 13th subcritical nuclear test at its underground test site in Nevada. As the century of war and nuclear weapons draws to a close, people around the world are working hard to make the next century one of peace free from nuclear weapons. Your repeated subcritical nuclear testing, revealing your evident intention to carry your nuclear weapons into the 21st century, tramples on the hopes of those seeking nuclear abolition. I am outraged, and, on behalf of the people of Hiroshima, I vehemently protest.

Despite your promise of "an unequivocal undertaking…to accomplish the total elimination of [your] nuclear arsenal," declared in the final document adopted at the NPT Review Conference in May of this year, the United States continues its nuclear testing and displays no indication whatsoever of a sincere effort to eliminate nuclear weapons. I am gravely concerned that your actions are impeding the movement in the international community to ban nuclear weapons, thus increasing distrust among the non-nuclear nations and provoking a new round of nuclear proliferation.

The United States should look objectively at the history of the 20th century and realize that nuclear deterrence does not prevent war. Rather, it invites escalation and proliferation of nuclear weapons, thus placing the entire human race at risk of annihilation. Please listen to the international community's sincere desire to eliminate these weapons. Please immediately halt your subcritical nuclear testing, and take your proper place at the forefront of the effort to make the 21st a century free from nuclear weapons.

Tadatoshi Akiba
Mayor
The City of Hiroshima