City Diplomacy: Local Governments Building Peace at World Conference of UCLG in South-Korea
October 30, 2007
Please find below the speech of Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba during a plenarary session on "City Diplomacy: Local Governments Building Peace" of the 2nd World Conference of the Union of Cities and Local Governments, Jeju, South Korea. More news about the Conference will be posted here soon.
Mayor Akiba reminds delegates that Cities can never be targets again
Thank you for your kind introduction, My Dear Colleague, Mayor Deetman, Your Excellency Jorge Sampoio, Honorable Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, Mayor Moncayo Gallegos, Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, Fellow Mayors, Ladies and Gentlemen!
It is my duty as the mayor of Hiroshima, which experienced the first ever atomic bombing, to talk about nuclear weapons.
On that fateful day sixty-two years ago, at 8:15 AM to be exact, one single bomb attached to a parachute exploded approximately 600 meters above my city and its population of 350, 000. A flash, followed by an enormous blast created literally a living hell on Earth.
Even before the bomb actually exploded, those within a 500-meter radius had received a lethal dose of radiation. They were already fated to die. With the temperature above 4,000 degree centigrade, most of those near the hypocenter were instantly evaporated. The eyes of young girls watching the parachute were melted. Their faces became giant charred blisters. The skin of people seeking help dangled from their fingernails. Their hair stood on end. Their clothes were ripped to shreds. People trapped in houses toppled by the blast were burned alive. Others died when their eyeballs and internal organs burst from their bodies—Hiroshima was a hell where those who somehow survived envied the dead.
Within the year, 140,000 had died. Many who escaped death initially are still suffering from leukemia, thyroid cancer, and a vast array of other afflictions.
But there was more. Sneered at for their keloid scars, discriminated against in employment and marriage, unable to find understanding for profound emotional wounds, survivors suffered and struggled day after day, questioning the meaning of life.
Let me add that many cities have had similar experiences of tragedy and suffering.
And yet the common message born of such agonies is a beam of light now shining the way for the human family. In Hiroshima, to ensure that “no one else should ever suffer as we did,” the hibakusha have continuously spoken of experiences they would rather forget, and we must never forget their accomplishments in preventing a third use of nuclear weapons.
Despite their best efforts, vast arsenals of nuclear weapons remain in high states of readiness—deployed or easily available. Proliferation is gaining momentum, and the human family still faces the peril of extinction. This is because a handful of old-fashioned leaders, clinging to an early 20th century worldview in thrall to the rule of brute force, are rejecting global democracy, turning their backs on the reality of the atomic bombings, the message of the hibakusha and the majority voices of the nations and citizens of the world.
However, here in the 21st century the time has come when these problems can actually be solved through the power of the people. Former colonies have become independent. Democratic governments have taken root. Learning the lessons of history, people have created international rules prohibiting attacks on non-combatants and the use of inhumane weapons. They have worked hard to make the United Nations an instrument for the resolution of international disputes. And now city governments, entities that have always walked with and shared in the tragedy and pain of their citizens, are rising up. In the light of human wisdom, they are leveraging the voices of their citizens to lift international politics.
We mayors know the trials and tribulations of our own citizens. We know how precarious and hard-won their economic wellbeing is. We know what it takes to build and maintain a livable city. Henceforth we are not going to let anyone just blow away our lives and livelihoods and blast our cities to bits and pieces. There are some things which are criminal, and we must state most clearly and urgently that ‘civicide’ is right up there with genocide and other high crimes.
More simply, “Cities suffer most from war.” That is why Mayors for Peace, with 1,793 city members around the world as of the beginning of this month and thanks to the commitment of many cities present here with more than 1,810 members as of now, is actively campaigning to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020. The time is long past for hoping and praying that our national governments will protect us from the nuclear danger. They only multiplied the dangers during the Cold War, and in the 15 years since the end of the Cold War they have only marginally reduced their massive arsenals, while nuclear proliferation and the advent of international terrorism have exacerbated the nuclear danger.
Eleven years ago the International Court of Justice told them, in no uncertain terms, that they were under an unequivocal legal obligation to get to work immediately on agreements ‘leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects.’ And still nothing! Some experts are so disheartened by this abject failure that they openly wonder whether it will take the actual use of a nuclear weapon to elicit real leadership.
My friends, you and I know who the victims of that nuclear attack would be: the innocent citizens of your city, my city, that is, our cities! We do not have the luxury of waiting around to see if such an atrocity would have the desired effect! We are left with no recourse but to intervene.
Tomorrow you will be adopting the Jeju Declaration. Among its many vital points will be one that we may call for short: Cities Are Not Targets. With that Declaration you will be claiming, on behalf of the majority of humanity that now lives in cities, that cities are no longer passive hostages to the threatened destruction of our cities. This will be a great milestone. But it is one thing to claim a right, and another to exercise it!
With the Jeju Declaration we, the representatives of the cities of the world, are saying that our citizens must be represented in decisions of global importance. I believe that Mayors for Peace and United Cities and Local Governments can ensure that we are represented in a fully professional and effective manner in all relevant international fora. It will take some time and pressure, but we will take our seat at the table and our voice will be heard. That is our right, and anything less would be a betrayal of the sacred trust our citizens have placed in us.
In three weeks, the Executive Conference of Mayors for Peace will meet in Florence, Italy. We will be considering an ambitious new phase of the 2020 Vision Campaign. Despite the disappointment of the 2005 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, we will make every good faith effort toward success at the 2010 Review Conference. If our governments should fail again in 2010, we will not wait quietly for the 2015 Review. We will intervene with countries of good faith around the world, and we will intervene effectively.
Let there be no doubt that the Decade of Disarmament declared by the United Nations will be the decisive decade for humanity. Will we eliminate nuclear weapons or will they eliminate us? There can be no more ‘muddling through.’ We either take the bull by the horns or it gores us. All the nonproliferation measures in the world will come to naught as long as tens of thousands of nuclear weapons and hundred of tons of weapon-grade fissile material continue to threaten our planet. They have got to go. I wish it could be done sooner than 2020, but I challenge anyone to justify why it should be done even a day later.
Mayors for Peace is a network of cities that welcomes participation from anywhere in the world, conducting City Diplomacy by utilizing this network. However, we are advocating more. It can be described as a paradigm change in conducting affairs of the world. The global community could learn a great deal in designing the future by how the networks such as UCLG and Mayors for Peace work. These networks represent the paradigm I am talking about which is based on dialogue, negotiations, cooperation, partnership, reconciliation, humanity, trust and caring. There are more expressions to describe it, but in Hiroshima, we call this paradigm the Peace Culture. It must replace the paradigm of war culture if we are to survive the 21st century.
To accomplish this goal, I would like to urge all members of UCLG who are not yet members to also join Mayors for Peace. On a more modest level, I would like to ask your help in this so that we have at least 2020 members for our 2020 Vision. Please join us in standing up for our cities and against nuclear weapons.
Thank you!
