NUCLEAR RADIATION VICTIMS: 10 Dimensions of the #GlobalHibakusha Phenomenon

World Nuclear Victims Forum in process. In background, poster exhibit from
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) show
examples of hibakusha from 50 locations worldwide.

My first post on returning from the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima was dug into the question, "What does it mean to say, "We are ALL hibakusha?"

Here are 10 of the post prominent examples about which I learned at the conference. (I will write more about each of these points in detail, and add links here as I expand the discussion. I welcome comments!)

(1) Uranium mining legacy in New Mexico. (Start by learning about the spill of nuclear waste at Church Rock.)

(2) Japan is in the midst of a nuclear power disaster -- Fukushima -- and yet is doing everything it can to export nuclear power plants to India. (See INDIA: Lured into playing the "Great Power" Nuclear Game)

(3) The victims of atomic testing that nobody talks about: Western China. (Read about the results of the Lop Nur testing.)

(4) Voices from Chernobyl. We have a powerful resource in Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich's Voices From Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster. (See IN ORDER TO HAVE A FUTURE: We MUST Study Chernobyl . . .)

(5) Germany's commitment to eliminate nuclear power by 2022 is a real line in the sand. (See GERMANY TURNS OFF NUCLEAR: The long road to freedom . . . . )

(6) The Marshall Islands is on the road to getting justice from bomb testing nations. (See MARSHALL ISLANDS HIBAKUSHA: Can social media trump empire and entertainment?)

(7) A campaign to "follow the money" in order to stop nuclear weaponry has been launched. (See dontbankonthebomb.com.)

(8) In Japan, in light of the Fukushima disaster, lawsuits against corporate executives and power companies are making progress. (See The New York Times, "3 Former Executives to Be Prosecuted in Fukushima Nuclear Disaster")

(9) Enormous pressure is building in Scotland to get nuclear weapons out of the UK. (The latest in many developments has been a Scottish Labour motion on scrapping Trident.)

(10) The "nonproliferation treaty" (NPT) was supposed to get rid of the nuclear threat -- but in light of its failure a ban treaty is taking its place. (See Want #NoNukes in 2016? TAKE ACTION!)

More detail to follow!

A global threat demands global response: #NOnukes #GlobalHibakusha
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Related posts

One way in which the patterns of the past are being turned on their head is through social media. Even if you are "just a 'dot' in the middle of the ocean," you can still have a global voice.

(See MARSHALL ISLANDS HIBAKUSHA: Can social media trump empire and entertainment?)











The enormous irony is that now one country -- India -- is responding to its past subjugation by the Western imperial program with this hugely self-damaging program, and another country that has struggled with its relationship to the Western imperial program -- Japan -- is doing everything it can to aid and abet.

(See INDIA: Lured into playing the "Great Power" Nuclear Game)

Three factors have played a big part in Germany's decision to go 100% "zero nuclear" by 2022 has relied on : the threat posed by the big powers, soul-searching within a very "bourgeoise" society, and organizing.

(See GERMANY TURNS OFF NUCLEAR: The long road to freedom . . . . )

Voices from Chernobyl is a rock upon which to build a global effort to tell the truth about Chernobyl and the hibakusha of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia.

(See IN ORDER TO HAVE A FUTURE: We MUST Study Chernobyl . . .)

A movement is underway WORLDWIDE to ban nuclear weapons. The fact that you are reading this online, and can use social media to take action and encourage others to do so, too, points to the tool we can use to make the ban a reality.

(See Want #NoNukes in 2016? TAKE ACTION!)

Hibakusha is a word that has traditionally been used to refer to people affected by the nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagaski.  It is now being broadened to recognize the many additional victims of acute affects of nuclear radiation (including fallout from tests and radioactivity from mining and processing). In fact, we are all subject to the impact and threat of nuclear radiation spread indiscriminately by nations and corporations.

(See HIROSHIMA: What does it mean to say, "We are ALL 'hibakusha'?")

Here are additional posts from my time at the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima in November, 2015, plus my thoughts as the event approached, and a list of my blog posts on eliminating nuclear weapons and related topics.

(See Nov 21-23, 2015 in Hiroshima: World Nuclear Victims Forum -- I'll Be There )