PRESS CONFERENCE
Tadatoshi Akiba, Former Mayor of Hiroshima City

11:00-12:00 Thursday, March 17, 2022
Language: The speech and Q & A will be in English.

Ukraine and the Scourge of Nuclear Weapons

With the risk of the conflict in Ukraine spiraling into a nuclear war, Tadashi Akiba has leapt into action. As the former mayor of Hiroshima, which was destroyed by an American nuclear bomb in 1945, and a long-standing peace activist, Akiba has demanded that Russian President Vladimir Putin declare he will not use nuclear weapons Putin has sent shockwaves around the world by putting his nation's strategic nuclear weapons on high alert. Akiba's petition here: https://www.change.org/NoNuclearWeapons
  
Akiba has also called on Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who represents Hiroshima Prefecture and whose family has roots there, to engage more forcefully against nuclear threats from Putin and other world leaders. This might also include politicians closer to home: former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently urged Japan to consider a NATO-style arrangement, which allows the United States to keep its nuclear warheads in Europe. "Japan should not treat as a taboo discussion on the reality of how the world is kept safe," said Abe.  

Akiba served for 12 years as mayor of Hiroshima, one of the only two cities ever bombed by nuclear weapons, before stepping down in 2011, after hosting the World Summit of Nobel Laureates, attended, among others, by H.H. the Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, Willy De Klerk, Muhammad Yunus and Betty Williams. He has a PhD in mathematics from MIT. He was an unusually forceful critic of former US President George Bush while in office. At the invitation of the FCCJ, he will talk about his campaign and explain why he thinks threatening to use nuclear weapons is a clear violation of international and humanitarian law. 

How to attend: 
Please register at front@fccj.or.jp with your name, the name of your media outlet, and FCCJ membership number. Due to space restrictions attendance will be limited. Doors open 15 minutes before the event. Please sign in, giving your name and contact details at the reception, and have your temperature taken before proceeding. 

How to watch online: https://www.youtube.com/c/FCCJchannel/live 　
Livestreaming of the press events will be available and video of this event will be uploaded to our FCCJ YouTube channel. 

How to ask questions:https://forms.gle/HAyD1rhhGqZHKY2S6
Members watching the event online can submit questions for the speakers in advance using this submission form.

TV crew: Please make a reservation at front@fccj.or.jp. Doors open for TV crews only at 30 minutes before the event. 

Professional Activities Committee