INFO - インフォメーション PURPOSE - 開催目的 PRE-EVENT - プレイベント
Purpose of the
World Nuclear Victims Forum 2025
- Nuclear and Humanity Cannot Coexist! -
In 2025, Hiroshima and Nagasaki mark the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings by the United States.
The nuclear age began when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and human beings gained the power to wipe humanity from the earth.
The atomic bombings instantly slaughtered countless innocent people, bringing unprecedented inhuman misery to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those who survived the horrors of this hell are still suffering from the effects of radiation. Reparation for victims of indiscriminate genocide as a result of state-provoked wars is yet to be fulfilled.
For all these years, the nuclear powers that control nuclear technology have trivialized or concealed the health effects of radiation.
To commemorate the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we will once again convene the World Nuclear Victims Forum. Bearing the tragic deaths of countless nuclear victims on our backs in Hiroshima, where the inhumane nuclear disaster brought about by the use of nuclear weapons took place, we aim to abolish nuclear weapons as well as the entire nuclear cycle, by upholding “nuclear and humanity cannot coexist,” a principle that was born in Hiroshima to categorically deny the entire nuclear cycle.
The nuclear cycle has led to extensive environmental contamination and serious impacts on the human body due to radioactivity at every stage, starting with uranium mining, milling, nuclear weapons and fuel production, nuclear testing, nuclear weapons use, nuclear power plant operation, nuclear power plant accidents, reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, storage and disposal of nuclear waste, and the use of depleted uranium weapons.
We have investigated and reported these serious consequences at uranium mining sites in India, the United States, and other countries; the sites in Iraq where depleted uranium munitions were fired; the sites of downwind residents at the Nevada nuclear test site; and the sites impacted by nuclear tests in the South Pacific and around the world. In addition, we have verified, investigated, and supported the communities where the lives, health, livelihoods, and natural environment were destroyed by nuclear disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima.
Uranium mining, milling, nuclear testing, and disposal of nuclear waste have been carried out on indigenous lands and in oppressed former colonies. What they all have in common is that the victims are always vulnerable. What we always witness there is a handful of those in power, for their own benefit, gratuitously and unjustly trampling on the people. The selfish actions of those in power who profit at the expense of people cannot be tolerated, and we must face the fact that their actions are now leading us to nuclear war, the climate crisis, and the danger of human extinction.
The Declaration of the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima, adopted at the World Nuclear Victims Forum in 2015 in the year of the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings, defined nuclear victims “in the narrow sense of not distinguishing between victims of military and industrial nuclear use, including victims of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and of nuclear testing, as well as victims of exposure to radiation and radioactive contamination created by the entire process including uranium mining and milling, and nuclear development, use and waste." In addition, we reaffirmed that “until we end the nuclear age, any person anywhere could at any time become a victim or a potential hibakusha, and that nuclear weapons, nuclear power and humanity cannot coexist.”
Today, the world is facing a more severe nuclear crisis than ever before. Wars continue to be waged by the ambition of states to expand their territory by force, and threats of using nuclear weapons are repeated. The development of nuclear technology has led to a race to plunder uranium and other resources, and the nuclear impacts are spreading more seriously around the world than ever before.
In January 2021, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force after a long battle led by hibakusha, prohibiting the production, possession, transfer, use or threat to use nuclear weapons by states parties. It marked a first step toward the end of the nuclear age. It is historically significant that the Treaty defines the illegality of nuclear weapons and the obligation of states parties to provide assistance to nuclear victims. However, the world is now facing a growing danger of nuclear war, with the war in Ukraine, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the threat of the use of nuclear weapons as a means of regional warfare amid the crisis in the Middle East. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was established based on the experiences of atomic bomb survivors and victims of nuclear tests who have spoken out against the extreme inhumanity of nuclear war, and the movement to share those experiences.
However, contrary to the pleas of the atomic bomb survivors that nuclear weapons cannot be abolished without the relief of nuclear victims around the world, the narrow definition of nuclear victims as those “affected by the use or testing of nuclear weapons" means that many nuclear victims, including Indigenous Peoples, are ignored. Furthermore, there are serious issues, such as the fact that the "peaceful use" of nuclear energy is recognized as an inalienable right, and that the perpetrators are not properly held accountable. Therefore, efforts to overcome these challenges are also important.
We must learn from the lessons of the two pillars of the A-bomb survivors’ movement in Japan -- the support of atomic bomb survivors and the movement for nuclear abolition – which have stood in the spirit of national reparation from the beginning of its history until the present.
We must learn from the will of our predecessors, who were determined to save themselves and at the same time save humanity in the midst of unimaginable suffering and continue the struggle against the enormity of nuclear authority, as recognized by the Nobel Peace Prize.
For more than 80 years, the nuclear industry and countries that have promoted the use of the nuclear cycle have created nuclear victims all over the world, regardless of whether it is used for military purposes or "peaceful" uses. Many of the nuclear impacts have been inflicted on Indigenous and colonized peoples. Even after the serious nuclear disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima, these countries and the nuclear industry are trying to further expand their negative impact by parading nuclear energy as a climate solution.
In order to prevent further nuclear damage in the world, we will strengthen the international network of efforts to break the entire cycle of nuclear use. To this end, we would like to create a place of international solidarity in Hiroshima for nuclear victims and their allies, aiming for the elimination of the nuclear cycle and a world in which no more hibakusha are created, by gathering nuclear victims, including Indigenous Peoples who are fighting in nuclear-affected communities, and medical, scientific and legal experts to thoroughly unveil the full extent of the nuclear impacts and aim for the total elimination of the nuclear cycle, for a world in which no more nuclear victims are created.
At the World Nuclear Victims Forum 2025, we will discuss with a wide range of participants action plans aiming for the relief of nuclear victims and the establishment of their rights, which reflect the experiences and voices of nuclear victims. Concrete action plans from the perspectives of affected communities will be shared with the international community, including Indigenous Peoples and people in the global south, and we will utilize the Forum to disseminate guidelines for the total elimination of nuclear use.
Building on the outcomes of the 2015 Forum, we will further develop the Draft Elements of a World Charter of the Rights of Nuclear Victims. Let us share the outcome documents to the world as a guideline for providing assistance to nuclear victims around the world, establishing the rights and compensation for nuclear victims, and achieving nuclear abolition.
Let’s deliver our messages from Hiroshima to the world!
Nuclear and humanity cannot coexist!
Establishment of human rights and support for nuclear victims!
Let's gather in Hiroshima with nuclear victims around the world and forge bonds of solidarity!