Statements

The United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration has announced that it carried out a subcritical nuclear test on December 6 at a Nevada test site. This is the 27th such test to date, with the previous one being conducted in February of last year. Although there was no nuclear explosion, it is clear that such tests are conducted based on a premise of nuclear war and with the intention of developing nuclear weapons with greater capacity for destruction and killing.

Humankind learned of the inhumanity of nuclear weapons as a result of the horrors wrought by the atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In a post-inauguration speech in Prague in April 2009, President Obama himself spoke of striving for a world free of nuclear weapons. Furthermore, the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent series of serious accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station have only recently once again made clear to the world the dangers and uncontrollable character of nuclear energy.

We feel deeply disappointed and angered that President Obama authorized this subcritical nuclear test after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize as a consequence of the lofty sentiments expressed in his Prague speech and immediately after being reelected because of the trust placed in him by the American people. Nuclear weapons and nuclear power are paths by which humanity will be buried in the illusion of nuclear energy, and they are a threat to the continued existence of all life.

We at the Japan P.E.N. Club protest this test and strongly urge the United States government to not hold such tests in the future.

December 8, 2012

The Japan P.E.N. Club

Jiro Asada, President

Chihaya Takahashi, Committee Chairperson
Peace Committee

Atsuo Nakamura, Committee Chairperson
Environment Committee