Host: The Japan Radiation Research Society, Chairman of the 52nd Annual Meeting, Toshiteru Okubo (Radiation Effects Research Foundation)
The RERF has worked for 60 years studying the effects of radiation. These studies have been used the world over for treatment and the setting of standards. In the long run, such studies will be vital to maintaining human health. In the short run, we have to stop nuclear weapons.
RERF research makes it obvious that nuclear weapons are cruel, inhumane and cannot be limited to the battlefield in either time or space. As such, they are illegal weapons. A majority of scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project believed the atomic bombs should never have been used. They should have been banned and eliminated or at least put under international control. Today, the vast majority of nations and people on this planet wish to be liberated from the threat of these weapons, and yet, we continue to allow a tiny group of greedy, competitive, dominance-seeking men to threaten all life on Earth with annihilation.
Next May, the human family will decide whether to eliminate nuclear weapons or let everyone have one. If we choose the latter, we will be choosing to solve our myriad global problems through a radical, violent reduction in human population. We will close out for decades, centuries or, perhaps, permanently any hope of graduating to a culture of peace. If the international community fails at the next NPT Review Conference (May 2010, New York) to take a convincing step toward complete disarmament, the number of nuclear-armed states could double or triple before the following review conference in 2015.
What we need to do is outlined in the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol. We need to start negotiations immediately, and we need to be working toward a deadline. We have no more time for playing games. Disarmament has become a matter of do or die, literally.
