Atomic bomb survivors worry Zelenskyy's visit overshadows nuke disarmament message
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's last-minute participation Sunday in the Group of Seven summit has brought intense global attention to Russia's invasion of his nation. But it has also worried atomic bomb survivors who said the high-profile visit overshadowed a rare chance to push world leaders to focus on nuclear abolishment.
Zelenskyy's inclusion at the G7 gathering of the richest democracies — and his pursuit of more weapons and other support for Ukraine, rather than a diplomatic pursuit to end the war — sends the wrong message, activists and victims said.
“Zelenskyy's visit is not appropriate for Hiroshima, which is a peace-loving city,” said Etsuko Nakatani, an activist whose parents survived the Hiroshima atomic bombing in 1945.
Many Hiroshima residents hope that understanding the city's tragic past will push leaders to “take up the abolition of nuclear weapons as an urgent political issue, not an ideal,” she said. “But support for nuclear deterrence has persisted, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, seems to have justified it further.”
Yuta Takahashi, a Hiroshima-born activist, believes that Zelenskyy's visit threatens to send a message “that justifies the need for nuclear deterrence in order to save Ukraine from becoming another Hiroshima,” he said. “It only makes us feel that Hiroshima was merely used by nuclear states to send a peace message.”
The summit started with a G7 leaders' visit to a peace park and a museum dedicated to those who died in the world's first wartime atomic bombing, and a similar visit of leaders from eight guest nations Sunday. After wrapping up all summit programs later Sunday, Kishida held a separate tour for Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy, asked at a news conference if he thought he took away attention from other important summit issues, including cooperation with so-called Global South nations, said only, “I need to be here.”
Earlier Sunday, Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol prayed at a memorial dedicated to Korean victims of the atomic bombing. The neighbors are trying to improve ties that have been strained by disputes stemming from Japan's brutal colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.
Kishida, who represents Hiroshima in parliament, wanted to highlight the G7 commitment to nuclear disarmament and a condemnation of Russia's threats to use atomic weapons. But he has been faulted by survivors for refusing to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Kishida says it's unworkable because no nuclear state has signed.