Protest letter against the US announcement of subcritical nuclear test (September 29, 1999)

September 29, 1999

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 September 28, the United States announced that, on the 30th of this month, it intends to conduct a seventh subcritical nuclear test at its underground test site in Nevada. Though the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva has called for negotiations toward a treaty banning the production of fissile materials (the Cut-Off Treaty), the start of such negotiations has yet to be scheduled, and the international community is struggling to maintain disarmament momentum. Given these delicate circumstances, we are outraged that the United States and Russia, which should be leading the disarmament effort, are repeatedly conducting subcritical nuclear tests, thus clearly displaying your intention to cling to your nuclear weapons. On behalf of the citizens of Hiroshima, I vehemently protest and demand that you immediately halt this testing.

During the recent conflict over Kosovo, important officials refused to rule out the use of nuclear weapons. Thanks to the efforts of A-bomb survivors and millions of others around the world, the use of nuclear weapons has been avoided since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, with the danger of actual use of such weapons increasing every day, I am gravely concerned that the uncooperative attitude of the United States and Russia increases the sense of injustice among non-nuclear nations and could stimulate a new round of nuclear proliferation.

I demand that the United States listen to the A-bomb survivors telling us all that "nuclear weapons are an absolute evil that threaten the very existence of the human race." We demand that you immediately halt all subcritical nuclear testing and accept your obligation as a nuclear power to work with genuine determination toward the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Tadatoshi Akiba
Mayor of Hiroshima