The Lanterns of Hope Speech
79th Commemoration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Hello Everyone! Our names are Kanon and Manon Iwata, and we are co-founders of the non-profit organization Teens4Disarmament. Teens4Disarmament for the past two years has made efforts to educate the people about nuclear weapons and promote nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation in our community, especially among the youth. We also work closely with the organizations Youth4Disarmament, PSR-LA, and Back From the Brink.
Regarding our disarmament journey, during the summer before our Freshman year, we visited many retirement and nursing homes in our local communities as a volunteer project for our school. Through this opportunity, we were able to meet many Hibakushas, also known as atomic bomb survivors, and hear their testimonies. After learning about their heart-wrenching experiences, we knew we must take action to create a more peaceful world.
Today, we would like to share with you all the experiences of one of the first hibakusha we spoke with, Mr. Ota. Over the summer of August 2022, we had the greatest opportunity to meet a fine gentleman, named Mr. Ota. Mr. Ota stated that August 6th was his birthday and coincidentally, the date of the explosion. As he casually walked out of his school ready to celebrate with his friends, a huge explosion radiated the entire city. In what was less than a millisecond, Mr. Ota and his friends were blasted by the bright pika light. Mr. Ota bled intensively, and pain overspread his body to the point he was completely numb. One of his friends was covered with hellish burns that ate his body to ash. The other friend was disfigured to the point he was unrecognizable. His remaining friend’s last words to him were “Omae Yo-ka-tta Ne” (I am so glad you are okay). During that moment he had to watch his friends, who were so dear to him, die in front of his eyes, in a state where he could do nothing about it. Mr. Ota to this day feels the guilt of living while his best friends died. August 6th is always a dark hole in his heart. For this reason, he really dislikes celebrating his birthday because it reminds him of this tragedy.
Atomic Bombs and nuclear weapons create inhumane and horrific consequences. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, more than 200,000 people were instantaneously murdered, and thousands more to come. The temperature of the ground was at least 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Undoubtedly, the gravest consequence of nuclear weapons lies in their devastating effects. These lethal devices have the capacity to cause the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and inflict severe damage on the environment and climate. The ionizing radiation emitted by nuclear weapons poses an immediate threat to all exposed, resulting in illness, death, and environmental contamination, with long-term health implications, including cancer and genetic damage. Moreover, the detonation of numerous nuclear weapons could trigger a devastating "nuclear winter," causing irreparable harm to our delicate ecosystem. It could disrupt the global climate and put as many as two billion people at risk of starvation, leading to a dreaded scenario known as a "nuclear famine" in the long term.
Nuclear weapons have a wide spectrum of harm. Not only does it include the immediate deaths upon drop, but also harmful effects in other aspects of our lives. One of them being racism through the testing of the nuclear weapons.
From 1946 to 1966, the French colonial regime tested 17 atomic bombs in the Algerian Sahara producing and releasing many radioactive particles and metal scraps from the failed tests. From 1946 to 1958, America has been deluging the Marshall Islands with nuclear weapons tests. The amount of nuclear energy released in the Marshall Islands is equal to 7,000 of the atomic bombs dropped in Hiroshima. Homes have been displaced, cancer rates have severely increased, and the remaining radiation has poisoned the environment.
Many Native communities are used as a place to store thousands of tons of hazardous nuclear waste. These nuclear wastes hurt the environment and cause health detriments for the people living there. The people of the Navajo Nation, Yakama Nation, and more all experience an increased rate of kidney failure and lung diseases because of the hundreds of abandoned uranium mines contaminating their water. The US government is exploiting Native communities in the form of economic racism.
On the topic of discrimination, nuclear weapons have always been used to threaten those we name as ‘others’. The storing, testing, and usage of nuclear weapons are always hurting minority communities. Martin Luther King Jr. often spoke in his speeches about the association between nuclear disarmament and civil rights. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once stated, “These two issues are tied together in many, many ways. It is a wonderful thing to work to integrate lunch counters, public accommodations, and schools. But it would be rather absurd to work to get schools and lunch counters integrated and not be concerned or educated with the survival of a world in which to integrate”. Emphasizing Martin Luther King Jr’s words, it is of absolute importance, especially now, that we are educated about nuclear weapons.
Accordingly, the United Nations reflects the idea of education and its importance to helping our world move forward to maintain peace. UNODA says, “The Youth are society's main agents of change and progress; they are the future of our world.”
Through education, we can learn to realize our mistakes from the past and make changes for the better. It is not like people do not want to make a change, just not enough people know about the problem unlike climate change or mistakes in history. That is why, learning from first-hand experiences and testimonies of communities who have suffered from the effects of nuclear weapons will allow more people to understand the risk of having them and how it will affect our future. In this way, more people will be informed and educated about these mass destructive weapons and make sensible and responsible decisions for our future, ultimately maintaining peace and security for everyone.
That is why engagement, communication, and a drive for change is so important, especially among the youth of our generation who will one day inherit our world. After talking with many peers and classmates, we learned that a majority of them knew nothing about nuclear weapons or the harmful effects that nuclear weapons cause. We hope that through our organization, Teens4Disarmament, we can educate more people and youth about nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.
Some of the activities Teens4Disarmament does is that we often share news and updates about nuclear disarmament to communities on our instagram, spread and write Hibakusha testimonies to inform others on our websites, and host keynote speaker events. We also currently consist of a total of 5 international chapters. Please check out our instagram and website if you have time and would like to learn more about nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation
Working together with the people, we all can make progress for nuclear disarmament and abolition. If you listen to the stories of the Hibakusha, you will understand why nuclear weapons have no place in our world. If you know what nuclear weapons have done to our environment and communities, you will feel the need to take action. And, if we work to educate ourselves and our communities, we can finally head towards a safer and more peaceful world.