The Movement Continues for a Nuclear-Free World

Thank you for the opportunity to speak at the 2025 World Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs.

I bring you greetings and solidarity from civil society movements in the U.S. who have been working diligently for a nuclear-free world against a U.S. government that is intent on spending huge amounts of money on “modernizing” its nuclear weapons.

As this is the commemoration of horrific deaths and wounding of hundreds of thousands of people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki 80 years ago in 1945, as an American citizen, I offer my profound apologies to the families of those killed in Japan—Japanese, Koreans, and other nationalities including the U.S. prisoners of war who were there. And to Marshallese and U.S. “downwinders” who suffered from U.S. testing of atomic and nuclear weapons, for the criminal actions of my government in using these weapons of mass destruction. I also apologize to the Vietnamese delegation at the conference for the U.S. dropping millions of gallons of Agent Orange and leaving tons of unexploded ordnance in Vietnam.

The knowledge that the horrific weapons would be used to kill and maim innocent civilians as a strategy to end the war was brutal, reckless, and without any sense of humanity.

80 years later, we are battling our governments as they continue to spend trillions of dollars to “improve, upgrade, modernize” these weapons.

80 years later, we now know the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the testing of these terrible weapons in Nevada in the United States, the Marshall Islands, the Russian Federation, Mururoa, French Polynesia, Australia, and Algeria have resulted in the legacy of genetic medical conditions for the generations that have followed those who were initially exposed to the radiation emanating from the testing of nuclear bombs.

Most of the test sites were on the lands of Indigenous peoples and far from the capitals of the testing governments. Large swathes of land remain radioactive and unsafe for habitation, even decades after test sites were closed.

Slow Ratification of the TPNW

And yet, 80 years later, we are battling our governments as they continue to spend trillions of dollars to “improve, upgrade, modernize” these weapons that have now been banned by the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which opened for signature at the United Nations on September 20, 2017 and entered into force on January 22, 2021.

We know the statistics. By the end of 2024, a total of 94 nations have signed the TPNW, but only 73 have signed and ratified the treaty. There are currently 21 signatory countries that have signed but NOT ratified the TPNW, countries in which their citizens must put pressure on their governments.

Citizen pressure must be put on the 44 nations that, incredibly, OPPOSE the treaty including the nine nuclear weapons countries: the U.S., Russian Federation, France, United Kingdom, China, India, Israel, North Korea, and Pakistan. Fifteen other nations are undecided on whether to accept or reject the treaty.

U.S. States and Cities Say No to Nuclear Weapons

The state legislatures of 5 out of 50 states in the United States—California, Oregon, New Jersey, Maine, and Rhode Island—have passed resolutions in support of the TPNW. Five large counties in the U.S. have passed resolutions in support of the TPNW, including the city and county where I live, Honolulu, Hawaii, as well as the city and county of San Francisco, and two counties in Maryland next to Washington, D.C.

Dozens of cities across the country, including Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., have also appealed to the U.S. government to sign and ratify the TPNW. In 2021, New York City resolved to pursue the divestment of public funds from nuclear weapons makers in response to the TPNW’s entry into force.

Japanese-American Rep. Jill Tokuda Cosponsors Stop the Nuclear Arms Race Resolution

In 2025, in the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress, Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii) introduced House Resolution 317 “Urging the United States to lead the world back from the brink of nuclear war and halt and reverse the nuclear arms race.”

Unfortunately, the resolution has only 28 sponsors or cosponsors out of 435 members of the House of Representatives, all from the Democratic Party, none from the Republican Party, meaning we have much work to do in the U.S. Congress.

About House Resolution 317, Jill Tokuda, my congressional representative in Hawaii who is a cosponsor of the resolution and who is Japanese American, one of only four Japanese Americans in the U.S. Congress, stated:

As a Japanese American, my heritage is deeply tied to the devastating impact of nuclear weapons and the atrocities of war. This resolution is about our moral imperative to achieve nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. It is not only a call for peace, but a commitment to ensuring that such tragedies are never repeated. This resolution represents a vital step toward a safer, more just world.

The resolution urges the United States to:

• Engage in good-faith negotiations with all nuclear-armed states to halt the buildup of nuclear arsenals and pursue verifiable, time-bound reductions;
• Conclude new arms control agreements with Russia and engage China on nuclear risk reduction;
• Renounce the option of using nuclear weapons first;
• End the Cold War-era “hair trigger alert” posture;
• Rein in the production of new nuclear warheads and delivery systems;
• Preserve the moratorium on nuclear testing;
• Protect radiation-impacted communities and workers through full remediation, compensation, and expanded healthcare, including an expanded Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA); and
• Plan a just economic transition for workers and communities dependent on the nuclear weapons industry.

U.S. Organizations Sending Greetings

There are a multitude of organizations in the United States and around the world that are working for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

They send their greetings to colleagues here in Japan and around the world as they continue their work in the U.S. Congress, in the states and cities and counties of the United States.

From June 8-11, 2025, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability’s (ANA) held its 38th annual D.C. Days to advocate in the U.S. Congress for safer nuclear weapons and waste policies.

ANA includes 30 organizations concerned with the local and national consequences of nuclear weapons and waste policy decisions. During the week of advocacy in the U.S. Congress, meetings were held with 80 members of Congress or their staff.

Referencing the Trump administration’s goal of eliminating waste in the federal government through the draconian measures taken by the Department of Government Efficiency, ANA published a new resource, “What about WASTE? 80 Years of Nuclear Waste” as a part of this year’s effort in the U.S. Congress.

The Nevada Desert Experience continues its annual spring Sacred Peace Walk from the Atomic Tests Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, 60 miles out to the Nuclear Test site on Western Shoshone land. The site was the primary testing location of American nuclear devices from 1951 to 1992. Around 928 announced nuclear tests occurred there; 828 tests were underground and 100 were atmospheric tests.

In another initiative for public awareness of the bloated U.S. military budget and nuclear weapons program, Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream in June 2025 initiated a $2.3 million, 2-year advocacy project called “Up in Arms.” The campaign is to reduce U.S. military spending, particularly on nuclear weapons; to make cutting the Pentagon budget a debate in the 2026 elections; and to bring a national focus onto nuclear dangers and the necessity of disarmament.

The International People’s Tribunal on the 1945 U.S. Atomic Bombings continues to bring international attention, and hopefully justice, to the Japanese and Korean victims and survivors of the effects of the horrific U.S. atomic bombs used in 1945.

The Lakenheath Peace Camp held in May 2025 at the U.S. Air Base in Lakenheath, U.K. focused on stopping nuclear weapons being sent again by the U.S. to be housed on U.K. soil.

NO to NATO events were held in June in The Hague, Netherlands to protest the 5% increase for NATO countries in national spending for military at the expense of social programs for the people and to alert the world to the dangers of the use of nuclear weapons in any conflict.

The International Peace Forum in Brussels, Belgium also in June 2025 focused on the increased militarization in Europe and the necessity of eliminating nuclear weapons.

The annual STOPP RAMSTEIN camp and demonstration, held in June at the largest U.S. air base in Europe, underscored the need to challenge the continuing U.S. dominance in European security issues and the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

The Gaza Freedom Flotilla attempted to sail two ships in May and June to break the Israeli genocide and the illegal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza, the complicity of the U.S. and other countries in the genocide, and the refusal of Israel to acknowledge its nuclear weapons.

Individuals Continue to Take Action to Bring Attention to Ending Nuclear Weapons

In 2024-2025, 81-year-old U.S. citizen Susan Crane spent 230 days in prison in Germany for cutting a fence into Büchel Air Force Base, climbing atop earthen bunkers used to store both nuclear weapons and German Tornado fighter jets to protest the stationing of American nuclear weapons in Germany, and for refusing to pay a fine. For three decades, Crane protested nuclear weapons in the U.S. and in Europe. She’s poured her own blood on a nuclear destroyer and taken a hammer to warplanes. In total, she said she’s served around seven years in prison.

Büchel Air Force Base trains German soldiers to drop hydrogen bombs on behalf of the United States as part of NATO's nuclear sharing arrangements.

Susan van der Hijden from the Netherlands and Gerd Buntzly from Germany were both in prison in Germany starting in June 2024 for similar actions at the Büchel Air Force Base.

Four U.S. peace activist have been incarcerated in Germany over protests at the Büchel Air Base: John LaForge; Dennis DuVall; Susan Crane; and Brian Terrell, a long-time Catholic Worker and human rights activist from Maloy, Iowa who works with the Nevada Desert Experience and served 15 days in the Wittlich Prison south of Cologne, from February 26 to March 12, 2025.

In June 2025, Veterans For Peace members held a 40-day fast at the United Nation and the U.S. and Israeli missions to the U.N. in New York City to stop the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza as well as for a nuclear free world.

Pledge to Continue Working for the End of Nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction

As we commemorate the lives lost and damaged by nuclear weapons 80 years ago, we commit ourselves to work harder for the elimination of these weapons, taking on our governments and the industries that make money from the construction and testing of these weapons of mass destruction.