• by Hiromichi Umebayashi
• Tuesday, September 22, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Why should we abolish nuclear weapons? This apparently naive question seems to have become a matter of debate, writes Hiromichi Umebayashi, founder and special advisor of Peace Depot, Inc. Japan.

In this article, the author writes that in Japan there is a deep-rooted desire for nuclear abolition that derives from its first-hand experience of the appalling damage caused by nuclear weapons. Yet this does not seem to be enough to constitute a successful argument for "a world free of nuclear weapons". The effort to bring about a nuclear abolition must be indivisibly and essentially integrated with the challenge of creating a more equitable, just, and humane global society.

The need for a global solution to problems like poverty and climate change is a given, as if tacitly mandated by the standards that guide civilised human society. Nuclear abolition, in contrast, tends to be confined within the category of weapons linked to national security. It is not seen as a moral and global moral issue. To succeed, the nuclear abolition movement must be brought into a wider sphere of people's thinking.

(*) Hiromichi Umebayashi is founder and special advisor of Peace Depot, Inc. Japan. He holds a PhD in applied physics.

//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM//

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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