Declaration of the Citizens’ Rally to Question the G7 Hiroshima Summit

(PDF version)(Press Release)

This is provisional translation. For the original text (Japanese), click here

Let’s end G7 once for all in Hiroshima, which can’t solve war, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, the climate crisis, or gender discrimination!

On May 19~21 this year, the G7 Hiroshima Summit will be held in Ujina, a former sortie base for the invasion of Asia. Japan waged wars of aggression and became a belligerent country with the United States as well. The United States carried out atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The atomic bomb is a horrible and destructive weapon capable of indiscriminately annihilating all human lives, and it symbolizes the domination by violence. After Japan’s defeat in World War II, the Japanese government pledged in its Constitution to renounce war, not to maintain military forces, and to deny the right of belligerency in order to prevent another war of aggression and colonial rule in Asia, and although Japan joined the United Nations, which is based on the principle of sovereign equality of nations, the reality of Japan has taken a very different direction.

The disarmament of Japan under Article 9 of the postwar Constitution to prevent the re-emergence of an emperor-based militarized state was conditional on the Emperor’s immunity from war responsibility and the continuation of the Emperor System. The Japanese people proceeded to completely fail in their democratic efforts to hold the Emperor responsible for the war crimes he had committed. This is a key factor in the fundamental flaws of democracy in Japan. Meanwhile, the pursuit of responsibility for the war crimes committed by the U.S. in the indiscriminate killing of atomic bombings was covered up in the nuclear armed Cold War regime that followed. Only by exposing and condemning this double cover-up can the “Heart of Hiroshima,” which calls for nuclear abolition, be persuasive to humanity.

We have affirmed that conflicts between nations should be resolved through negotiations, not violence, that “all peoples of the world have the right to live in peace, free from fear and want,” and that “nuclear weapons and humanity cannot coexist.” The G7 Summit is in direct opposition to the international community, which has gathered at the United Nations General Assembly to resolve issues based on the principle of equal sovereignty.

And we should be wary that this summit in Hiroshima has become a stage for information warfare, deceiving people around the world with the cliché of “freedom and democracy,” making military alliances a fait accompli, posing as if they are addressing climate change and gender challenges, and demonstrating their own leadership.

It is said that the G7 summit in Hiroshima, the A-bombed city, will discuss the prohibition of nulclear use in response to Russia’s threat of nuclear use in its invasion of Ukraine in February last year. However, we deem that the problem lies not only in Russia but also in the “tactical nuclear weapons” of the nuclear-armed states of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and India, the combination of nuclear weapons and advanced technology, and the relaxation of restrictions on the use of nuclear weapons such as depleted uranium munitions.

The Japanese government has not ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. In addition, the Japanese government has not asserted that the use of nuclear weapons violates international law, and it will reportedly declare the strengthening of “deterrence through expanding the nuclear umbrella” at theJapan-U.S.-ROK summit meeting on May 21. If nothing is done, the A-bombed Hiroshima could be re-recognized as the site of “the use of nuclear weapons that hastened the end of the war.” Furthermore, Russia has gone on an outrageous move to position the occupation or attack of nuclear power plants as a viable strategy. This violent act of Russia has exposed the strategic significance of nuclear power plants. In order to build a regime for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the movement against nuclear weapons and the movement against nuclear power plants must be united.

This summit has reached a critical juncture. This is because the United States and Europe are strengthening their unity under the guise of supporting Ukraine, while the U.S., Europe, Japan, and NATO are planning to expand their military alliance under the new Cold War regime against Russia and China, which involves not only the East Asia but also the entire Pacific Rim.

The G7 Hiroshima Summit will also be deeply complicit in the U.S. strategy toward China and will use the situation in Ukraine as a pretext to fuel the “Taiwan crisis.” The Japanese government had three basic documents decided upon by the Cabinet, including a national security strategy that justifies a preemptive strike by claiming to possess the capability to attack enemy bases. The G7 Summit will be a forum to support the Japanese government as it pushes forward with its policy of massive military expansion and tax hikes.

In the Ryukyu Arc (Nansei Islands), missiles for preemptive attacks have been deployed at bases meant for island defense. The governments of Japan and the Republic of Korea have forced a settlement, as if to make it in time for the Summit, of the wartime requisitioned Korean worker issues, ignoring the victims of Japan’s colonial rule, while the strengthening of the Japan-U.S.-South Korea military alliance is steadily underway.

The Japanese government has obscured their responsibility for wars of aggression and colonial rule. The G7 meeting will be held at Ujina, Hiroshima, the former sortie base for the invasion of Asia. The G7 is once again repeating the history of aggression in Ujina. 

The Okinawa International Forum was held at the same time as the G8 Okinawa Summit in July, 2000. At this forum, the following viewpoints were presented based on the truth from the Battle of Okinawa that the military does not protect the people. That is, the security of the state protected by the military is at odds with the security of the people; this apparatus of violence is maintained through acts of aggression and peacetime war preparation, and is a structure of violent male domination, sexual oppression, and exploitation; and that it has deepened into male-centered racial, economic, and regional xenophobia. The forum raised the importance of building “people’s security” through non-violent struggles for alternative structures, which are brought about by strong criticism from women subjected to this violence and domination of the military and by the solidarity that transcends various boundaries.

In June 2000, the “International Women’s Summit” criticized that the construction of the new base would lead to the increased violence in Okinawa and that the G8 Okinawa Summit would strengthen the Japan-U.S. military alliance. In solidarity with the Okinawa Peace Rally on May 21 this year, we will continue our struggle to break the status quo in which the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty transcends the Constitution.

We will reaffirm that war and sexual violence, in which the other party is dominated by violence, have the same roots, and we will promote efforts to build “peace among peoples beyond national borders” rather than “national security,” which presupposes the violent devices of the military and the threats from other countries.

One year has passed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the war in Ukraine is assuming a complexion of a proxy war as NATO countries provide more and more military support for the Ukrainian army. Many Ukrainian and Russian people have lost their lives and the war is in a stalemate. Now is the time for concrete and realistic moves toward a ceasefire and peace. International anti-war movements in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and Russia who are resisting the violence are called for to pressure both Russia and NATO to stop the continuation and escalation of the war, while clearly condemning Russia’s aggression. “Life is precious” and “Life is a treasure” are the lessons we learned from our cruel history. From the standpoint of the people, we must now rally our peace voices against war for the sake of peace in Ukraine.

Since the end of the Cold War, globalization under neoliberalism has swept the world. And China has rapidly developed, contrary to U.S. expectations. At the same time, the destruction of the local economy due to widening inequality has accelerated. There are people’s movements for de-globalization to resist these trends. However, the “New Cold War” between the United States and China as well as the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine have led to the establishment of an “economic security” system in Japan, where the military and the economy are integrated. The G7 has strengthened its encirclement of China on this front as well, leading to a disconnect in relations with developing countries in the “Global South.” We oppose the globalization of capital and military power. We also oppose “economic security.”

We will create a world that develops an open and recycling-oriented regional economy based on local self-sufficiency in renewable energy and food through the solidarity of people across borders who pursue a non-military, non-aligned, and neutral path.

In response to the “limits of global environmental capacity” that we face, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity have been adopted, and “sustainable coexistence with nature” has become an urgent challenge. The G7 is the original culprit in these issues. Among them, the United States is not a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

We believe that we need to review our wasteful fossil-fuel-centered civilizations, including the presence of armies, and call for social transformation of the global capitalist system, as well as to implement the self-improvement of the people themselves.

We call for an end to the G7 in Hiroshima, which cannot solve war, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, the climate crisis, or gender discrimination.

★ We call on Prime Minister Kishida not to politically abuse Hiroshima for the sake of military expansion!

– President Biden must apologize for the indiscriminate genocide caused by the atomic bombings!

– Prime Minister Kishida must apologize for Japan’s invasion of Asia and colonial rule!

– Leaders of nuclear-armed states (US, UK, France, and India) should not come to Hiroshima! Abolish nuclear weapons immediately!

– G7 / NATO military alliance should stop threatening of nuclear weapons (= crimes against peace)!

– Solidarity with citizens of Ukraine and Russia who are resisting violence!

– Immediate ceasefire! Withdraw Russian troops! NATO must stop over-intervention!

– Eradicate all wartime and daily sexual violence and sexual exploitation!

– International solidarity of citizens for a nuclear-free, nuclear-power- plant free, military- free East Asia!

Adopted by all the participants in the Citizens’ Rally to Question G7 Hiroshima Summit

May 13, 2023


E-mail address for contact

info-nog7-hiroshima2023@proton.me