“The enormity of the challenge brings on feelings of grief, shock, denial, numbness & anger… It’s important to experience these completely, because it opens a space in the heart for love.

And when you love things, courage comes. And from courage, action.”

GAIL BRADBROOK | EXTINCTION REBELLION

 
SIGN & SHARE THE HIBAKUSHA APPEAL HERE --> https://www.peacinstitute.org/endnukesnow + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + “So that the people from future generations will not have to experience hell on earth, we want to realize a world free of nuclear weapons while we are still alive.” Join your voice with those of the Hibakusha to say “Never Again.” Sign the petition for a new treaty to ban nuclear weapons below. Hibakusha Earnestly Desire Elimination of Nuclear Weapons At present, humanity stands at the crossroads of whether to save our blue planet with all living things on it as it is or to go along the road of self-destruction. The two atomic bombs dropped on August 6th and 9th 1945 by the US forces totally destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in an instant and killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of people without discrimination. With corpses charred black, bodies with their skins peeled off and with lines of people tottering in silence, a hell on earth emerged. Those who narrowly survived soon collapsed one after another. For more than 70 years since then, we have struggled to live on, afflicted by the delayed effects and by anxiety about the possible effects of radiation on our children and grandchildren. Never again do we want such tragedies to be repeated. After 11 years of silence following the A-bomb suffering, Hibakusha assembled in Nagasaki in August 1956 and founded Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of A-and H-bomb Sufferers Organizations. There we pledged that we would work to "save humanity from its crisis through the lessons learned from our experiences, while at the same time saving ourselves". Since then we have continued appealing to the world that "there should never be another Hibakusha." This is the cry of our soul. Wars and conflicts are still going on in the world, and many lives of innocent people are lost. Nuclear weapons are being used to threaten others. There are also moves to develop new nuclear weapons. The destructive power of existing nuclear weapons, which number well over 10 thousand, amounts to that of tens of thousands of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs combined. Nuclear weapons are the "weapons of the devil". They could wipe out the human race and all other creatures. They could destroy the environment and turn the globe into a dead planet. Human beings have prohibited the use, development, production, and possession of biological and chemical weapons by treaties and protocols. Why do we hesitate to prohibit nuclear weapons, which are far more destructive than these weapons? We, the Hibakusha, call on all State Governments to conclude a treaty to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons. The average age of the Hibakusha now exceeds 80. It is our strong ' desire to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world in our lifetime so that succeeding generations of people will not see hell on earth ever again. You, your families and relatives, or any other people should not be made Hibakusha again. We believe that your signatures appended to this appeal will add up to the voices of hundreds of millions of people around the world and move international politics. They will finally save the future of our blue planet and all life on it. We earnestly appeal to you to append your signature to this petition. April 2016 Initial Proposers of the Appeal: Sunao Tsuboi, Sumiteru Taniguchi and Mikiso Iwasa, Co-Chairpersons, Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations) Terumi Tanaka, Secretary General, Hidankyo Kwak Kwi Hoon, Honorary Chairman, Korean Association of Atomic Bomb Victims Tsukasa Mukai, President, US Association of Atomic Bomb Victims Takashi Morita, President, Associacao Hibakusha Brasil Pela Paz Setsuko Thurlow, Hibakusha of Hiroshima, Toronto,Canada Yasuaki Yamashita, Hibakusha of Nagasaki, Mexico City, Mexico International Signature Campaign in Support of the Appeal of the Hibakusha for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons Earnestly desiring the elimination of nuclear weapons without delay, we, the Hibakusha, call on all State Governments to conclude a treaty to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons. I, the undersigned, hereby support the Appeal of the Hibakusha: https://www.peacinstitute.org/endnukesnow
 

21 June 2019

Just after sending you the previous, I ran into this, a good summary of what “Extinction Rebellion” is doing and why they are doing it

We need to align ourselves with this partly because climate change is more popular and established than nuclear abolition, but also because humanity will not do anything about climate change until we get rid of nuclear weapons or at least raise our consciousness to the point where nuclear weapons and nuclear war are just out of the question. Tactics are shifting dramatically from competition to cooperation because all our problems require cooperation — but our leaders are all competitors who prefer to kill and even die rather than lose. We have to shift from winning to solving problems.

Hence, the Hibakusha Rebellion through revolutionary love. Our mission is to generate a massive nonviolent direct action movement that disrupts business as usual and demands action on nuclear weapons, inequality, social justice, mass incarceration, rule by gangsters, and climate change.

Again I am sending these things to get us communicating so we can be on the same wavelength by the time we get to Hiroshima…

- Steve

 
Clockwise from top left: Rebecca Irby, Steve Leeper, DJ Spooky & George Del Barrio

Clockwise from top left: Rebecca Irby, Steve Leeper, DJ Spooky & George Del Barrio

 
 
 

1 August 2019

Arrival, Hiroshima

2-6 August 2019

“Hiroshima 2020” project space tours; 1-on-1 Hibakusha interviews by Rebecca Irby & Steve Leeper with direction × cinematography by George Del Barrio; meetings with artists/activists/civil servants/investors; spontaneous collaborations with local organizations, institutions & project spaces; pop-up performance by Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky); screening, seminar and conference appearances

4 August 2019

DJ SPOOKY at IMPERIAL BANK

7 August 2019

“Hibakusha 2020” stakeholders meeting; departure, Hiroshima

 
 

Earnestly desiring the elimination of nuclear weapons without delay, we, the Hibakusha, call on all State Governments to conclude a treaty to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons. I, the undersigned, hereby support the Appeal of the Hibakusha

 

Inquiries | George Del Barrio