This just in from our colleague Joseph Gerson, author of Empire of the Bomb, at Peace & Planet:
Friends,
As you have no doubt heard or read, it has been confirmed President Obama will visit Hiroshima later this month following the G-7 summit in Japan.
Kevin Martin, President of Peace Action and a Peace and Planet Co-Convener was interviewed yesterday on Democracy Now!. It’s worth taking a few minutes to tune in to Kevin’s responses to the announcement, to the words of Nobel Laureate Oe Kenzaburo, and Hosokawa Koji, a Hiroshima Hibakusha.
It’s also not too late to send a message urging President Obama not to go to Hiroshima empty handed. We’re told that he wants to “send a forward looking signal.” That signal could be:
• Announcing the end of the $1 trillion triad
• Calling for commencement of the good faith negotiations for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons as required by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
• Ending the U.S. first-strike nuclear war-fighting strategy, or
• Announcing a significant unilateral reduction in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
You can also express your solidarity with the Hibakusha (witness/survivors of the A-bombs) by signing their petition.
For Peace, Planet and a Nuclear-Free World,
Joseph Gerson