Six US Experts to President Trump

     Today I have had an access to the full text of a joint letter sent by six American experts on the US-North Korean relations addressed to Donald Trump dated on 28 June 2017.  The six include George Shultz, a former Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan, or William Perry, a former Secretary of Defence under Bill Clinton. Therefore it is a by-partisan team.

     The letter strongly requests Trump soon to start negotiating with North Korea. It says that the the leadership on the other side has not yet lost reason.  It also says that China will give a helping hand on such an occasion.

     The experts have admitted that even in isolation the North has shown it possible to advance missile and nuclear technology.  They are sure that, unless diplomatic effort is made to stop such advance, there is little doubt that they will succeed in developing long-range missiles to deliver nuclear warheads to America.

     I believe that these six experts are speaking with a wide background and from a large viewpoint.  I therefore heartily support and welcome the letter.  I strongly hope that Japan's government would also support it.   

Hibakusha as against the PM

     Once again, for 72nd time, the anniversaries of the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have come, and gone, on 6 and 9 August, respectively.

     At the commemoration ceremonies held on these days,  a list of 5,530 names was dedicated who have passed during one year out of the radioactivity-survivors (Hibakusha) of Hiroshima, and of 3,551 names for Nagasaki.  These figures have brought the number of the total dead to 308,725 for Hiroshima, and 175,743 for Nagasaki, nearly half a million if put together.  There are 164,621 survivors at present.  Their average age is 81.41 years old.

     The atmosphere of these ceremonies was a bit different from the previous ones, as the Treaty banning the nuclear weapons, all of them, without an exception, was passed at the UN in July this year.  It has greatly encouraged the hope in that direction. Both the Mayors of the two cities have also expressed the hope in their speech, and appealed to the Japanese Government, who had not participated in the move, to join the tide and sign the Treaty.

     The one who was adamant not to do so was the Prime Minister himself.  Mr.Abe Shinzo said, in almost identical terms on the two occasions, that the Treaty will widen the gap between the nuclear powers and the non-nuclear powers. According to him, both of these groups should participate for such a programme to be effective, and he will make an effort to bridge the two sides, thus attacking the Treaty and justifying his indifference.

     Nobody has expressed dissatisfaction with such a view more strongly than the several groups of Hibakusha who met the PM at Nagasaki after the ceremony. They asked Abe straightaway of which country he was the Prime Minister?  Of course they were entitled to do so.