‘Never again, not anywhere’
When the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in
1945, Taeko Yoshioka Braid watched from the second-floor window of her classroom, about
60 kilometres away. Yoshioka Braid, who moved to New Zealand in 1956 and lives in Hastings, travelled to Hiroshima the next day with classmates to look for her family members and take supplies to the victims.
She said it was hard to talk about the horrors she saw as a
13-year-old in Hiroshima, including children separated from their parents, and people dying from burns from the blast and the radiated water.
On her second trip to the town at the epicentre, she felt something sticking to her shoes. She eventually realised it was human skin, which had melted off, after the blast.
Yoshioka Braid’s story comes at a time when the world is trying to grapple with nuclear diplomacy. Nuclear weapons have featured prominently in the public and political debate in recent months, with the escalation of the North Korea threat, followed by a watershed meeting between North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un and United States President Donald Trump, which did not eliminate the North Korea nuclear threat as Trump had claimed.
Meanwhile, the US has withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal, which was reached by seven countries in 2015, after two years of negotiations.
At a time when the international rules-based order is being challenged, and nuclear weapons remain a global issue, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has reinstated the Cabinet portfolio of disarmament and arms control. In her first foreign policy speech in February, Ardern announced Winston Peters would take up the ministerial role.
Yoshioka Braid’s comments came at a foreign affairs, defence and trade select committee hearing yesterday into the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
‘‘If anyone went there the day the bombed dropped, I’m sure they would all think like me: never again . . . I don’t want those same sorts of things to happen anywhere in the world.’’
Her daughter, Jacky Yoshioka Braid, said New Zealand needed to take a leadership role in the elimination of nuclear weapons. ‘‘We need to stop this fantasy around a nuclear war that we possibly could survive.
‘‘We saw what happened in Hiroshima, we’ve seen the after effects of what happened there and in Nagasaki. They were tiny compared to what could happen today.’’
New Zealand created a worldleading anti-nuclear policy in 1984. ‘‘I think it’s really important that New Zealand takes this leadership role and helps guide these other young people around the world who want to stop the nuclear proliferation,’’ she said.
Last month, former Green Party candidate and disarmament campaigner Thomas Nash said ‘‘for technology that hasn’t been used in conflict since 1945, nuclear weapons sure have a knack of getting on to the global agenda’’.
But it wasn’t surprising given they posed the greatest existential threat to humanity next to climate change, he said.
Nash also spoke to the select committee, urging New Zealand to take a leadership role in eliminating nuclear weapons and global disarmament, in general.
‘‘This treaty has a humanitarian purpose. This is rather distinct from previous international deliberations on nuclear weapons, which have tended to be about big power politics between countries weighing up the grand game and the balance,’’ he said.
‘‘I think it’s important to think about bringing back this human element of the impact of nuclear weapons, because violence, militarism, relies on a dehumanisation of violence; abstracting it away from us. If we’re going to move away from that, we have to acknowledge the human face.’’
On behalf of Alternative New Zealand, Nash recommended New Zealand ratify the treaty next month, adding that early ratification would signal New Zealand’s commitment to eliminating nuclear weapons and to making genuine progress on international disarmament work.
Nash was part of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize last year after the group of Genevabased activists was recognised for its role in pushing for a United Nations treaty declaring the weapons illegal.
About the treaty
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is a landmark, legally binding international instrument prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons and related activities.
In July last year, it was adopted by the United Nations conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination.
In September last year, New Zealand was one of the first countries to sign the treaty, at a ceremony during the United Nations General Assembly.
At the time, then-foreign minister Gerry Brownlee said it represented an important step towards a nuclear-free world, despite no countries that currently hold nuclear weapons signing the treaty.
New Zealand’s signing of the treaty was consistent with the country’s long-standing commitment to international nuclear disarmament efforts.
At a United Nations conference in July last year, New Zealand joined more than 120 other states in supporting the adoption of the treaty.
The treaty would come into force once 50 states have ratified it. At this stage, 10 countries have done so.