"Among those nations like my own that own nuclear stockpiles, we must
have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without
them." President Barack Obama in Hiroshima, May 27, 2016
A new study by the Federation of American Scientists
has determined the Obama administration has reduced the nuclear
stockpile at a far slower rate than any of his three immediate
predecessors, including George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush. (Although numbers vary, the nine nuclear nations currently possess some 15,000 operational nuclear weapons. Of these, the United States and Russia possess 93% of them, about equally.)
In fact, despite Obama's call for an end to nuclear weapons, the
United States is actually increasing them. He has committed to a $1 trillion upgrade to our nuclear arsenal over the next three decades.
Why didn't he add, ". . . And our country will cancel our
proposed trillion dollar upgrade and begin immediately to reduce our
nuclear stockpile by 10% per year through the year 2026. We call on
every nuclear nation to follow our example."
Good words--but empty. Just do it, Mr. Obama!
See http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/37110-in-hiroshima-obama-calls-for-world-without-nukes-contradicting-new-1-trillion-weapon-upgrade-plan
President Obama will be visiting my home town tomorow.
I grew up in Hiroshima. Six years after the bomb the Atomic Energy
Commission sent my dad, Dr. Earle Reynolds, to study the effects of radiation
on the growth and development of 4,800 children who survived.
Obama will tour Peace Memorial Park (Ground
Zero). Our family sat through more than
one August 6th ceremony there, honoring the hibakusha (explosion-affected people) killed that day, 95% of them
civilians, and those thousands killed by the bomb's radiation since then.
In the Peace Park he will see the Children's
Monument, surrounded by colorful paper crane leis. At its top, a model of 12-year old Sadako
Sasaki stands with arms stretched wide. Sadako
made the crane a worldwide symbol of peace.
For three years Dad studied children like
Sadako--very likely Sadako herself. Sadako Sasaki did not develop radiation symptoms
for ten years, after our family--my parents, brother Ted, myself, and three
Hiroshima yachtsmen--left Japan on a yacht my dad designed and built, Phoenix
of Hiroshima. While we were sailing
around the world for pleasure, Sadako was folding paper cranes in a desperate
attempt to stay alive. She died in
1957.
On May 1, 1958, we sailed into Honolulu,
ready for the last leg of our circumnavigation back to Hiroshima. But between us and our goal was 390,000 square
miles of the Pacific which the AEC had just declared off-limits to American
citizens. In it, they were conducting the Hardtack
series of atmospheric nuclear tests.
The
35 explosions would total 35.6 megatons, more than 2,373 Hiroshimas.
Dad was concerned about the additional
radiation being released into the jet stream and ocean currents. But until we
met the crew of the Golden Rule, a
smaller yacht down the dock from us, he remained a scientist, not an activist.
These four Quakers had just been intercepted
by the Coast Guard. Captain Bigelow was
arrested for attempting to sail into the nuclear test zone. A subsequent attempt on June 4th led to the
arrest and 100-day incarceration of the entire crew.
Inspired by their courage we took over their
protest. On July 2 we entered the
forbidden zone. A Coast Guard cutter
pulled alongside and two men in white uniforms with side arms jumped
aboard and put Dad under arrest.
Dad's trial in Honolulu, conviction, and
appeal took two years. When we were
finally free to sail back to Hiroshima, we were amazed to be welcomed by
hundreds of hibakusha. They thanked us for giving their message to
the world: NO MORE HIROSHIMAS! NO MORE NAGASAKIS!
In 1961, when the USSR resumed atmospheric
testing, we sailed again. We took with
us hundreds of letters and appeals from hibakusha.
The captain of a Coast Guard vessel
off Nakhodka refused us entrance to their port--and refused the letters.
In 1962-64 my mother, Barbara Reynolds, took
those letters and hibakusha themselves to every nuclear nation—twice. They met with ambassadors, Congresspersons, United
Nations delegates, doctors, teachers, schoolchildren, appealing for a
nuclear-free world.
Obama may not see the monuments behind the
museum, monuments to foreigners who helped hibakusha
recover. One of them was my
mother. He may not see the World Friendship Center she founded
nearby, a place for international visitors to stay, meet hibakusha, share
cultures, beliefs and ways to avoid war.
But I hope Mr. Obama will see Hiroshima
through the eyes of the hibakusha. They do not care about the politics
of nuclear war. They lived through one. They want the nuclear powers, including us, to
stop talking about the need to get rid of nuclear weapons, stop waiting for
others to take the lead, and just eliminate them. They don't want anyone,
anywhere, to have to go through what they did.
Jessica
Reynolds Renshaw, Long Beach
Author,
To Russia with Love, published
by Wilmington College Peace Resource Center, Wilmington, Ohio, 2010
Mum and me fasting at foot of Children’s Monument, Christmas Day, 1961, deciding what to do with hibakusha letters and appeals.
Me, with scroll (1 of 3 in the world) showing words on the cenotaph at Ground
Zero: “Rest in peace, for the error will never be repeated.”
