| |
 |
|
|
Letter from Ms. Emiko Okada, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, to President George W. Bush |
Filmmaker and Pax Christi New Mexico Co-coordinator Bud Ryan recently went to Japan to shoot his movie on the Hiroshima Peace Museum. While there, he met an incredible woman, Emiko Okada, who was a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Ms. Okada shared with Bud her intention to get President Bush to visit Hiroshima during the July 2008 G8 summit taking place in Japan. Pax Christi USA is encouraging its members and others to send their own emails and letters to President Bush in support of Ms. Okada's request.
Send letters of support to:
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
Or by email at:
comments@whitehouse.gov
Ms. Okada's letter
Dear President Bush,
As a hibakusha, a survivor of the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb, I would like to invite you to come and visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum while you are in Japan for the G8 Summit (in July).
All of my friends, many of whom are fellow bomb survivors, are waiting to be your guides around the Peace Memorial Museum and Peace Memorial Park. We are the people who can give you the best perspective of the horrors of nuclear weapons as we have lived through it and many of us have suffered numerous physical ailments over the last 62+ years and lost loved ones in the blast.
I myself suffer from aplastic anemia and I lost my 12 year old sister whose last words were "I go now" as she left our house that fateful August morning in 1945.
Our world is now full of worries like global warming, environmental issues, regional conflicts, poverty and a questionable world economy, so none of us need the specter of nuclear weapons to add to those concerns. As a bomb survivor my only wish is that these horrible weapons never be used again. To insure that these awful weapons are never used again ALL of the Nuclear Weapons States must live up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which requires that all nuclear stockpiles be dismantled.
I would ask that you, with the tremendous authority that the Office of the President of the United States possesses, take the first step in fulfilling your Treaty obligations by coming to Hiroshima to see for yourself firsthand what these weapons have wrought and to talk with some of the people who have lived through the blast.
I would also ask that you use your international influence to invite the other leaders of the Nuclear Weapon States – Great Britain, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea – to join you in Hiroshima so they too can see and hear for themselves the destructive nature of these nuclear weapons that do not discriminate between soldier and civilian. In point of fact, nuclear bombs kill mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, grandmothers and grandfathers, the old and the young.
Thank you for reading my invitation and listening to my plea about helping to remove the 30,000+ nuclear weapons around the world today. I look forward to meeting you and the other leaders in July in Hiroshima.
Sincerely,
Ms. Emiko Okada
11-6 Nakayama Kagamigaoka
Higashi-ku, Hiroshima 732-0022
Japan
back |
|
|
|
|