Protest letter against the Pakistan nuclear test (May 30, 1998)

May 30, 1998

His Excellency Muhammad Nawaz Sharif
Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

His Excellency Miss Durray Shahwar Kureshi
Charg'e d'Affaires of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Japan

Letter of Protest

Despite the harsh, worldwide criticism your country received for dismissing the pleas for restrain of the international community and conducting a nuclear test, you have willfully conducted a second test. I am outraged by your violent trampling on the hopes of people who desire a world free from nuclear weapons, and on behalf of the people of Hiroshima, I once again strongly protest.

Your test has worsened the already deteriorating relationship between India and Pakistan and has infinitely magnified the danger that the tensions will escalate into border clashes and, ultimately, to the actual use of nuclear weapons. We are gravely concerned that this nuclear weapons competition between India and Pakistan will ripple out to neighboring nations and others suspected of having nuclear weapons, sparking an unstoppable general nuclear arms race.

Pakistan should give serious attention to international public opinion seeking nuclear abolition and immediately halt all nuclear testing. I urge you to learn from the experiences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki fifty-three years ago and realize that if nuclear weapons are used again, human beings will be walking the path to extinction, and I strongly demand that you abandon your policy of building national security on nuclear weapons and strive to recover relationships of mutual trust that will bring true peace and stability to Southern Asia.

Takashi Hiraoka
Mayor of Hiroshima