ICAN head: Japan should join UN nuclear weapons ban treaty meetings
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Executive Director Melissa Parke spoke to reporters in Hiroshima on Monday. The group won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its contribution to the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Parke is in Japan to attend ceremonies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings.
She said the bombings were not an isolated event, but the beginning of 80 years of harm to generations of people.
She said she expects the ceremonies will be very moving and will inspire her group even more to seek a world without nuclear weapons.
Parke said the risk of nuclear weapons being used is at its highest ever, and as long as the weapons exist, it cannot be said that the next 80 years will be safe.
She said, "Japan has the opportunity to provide unique moral leadership, as the only country attacked with nuclear weapons in wartime." She noted that the treaty provides for victim assistance and called on Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru to "listen to the hibakusha."
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