Hibakusha Calls Nuclear Weapons "Absolute Evil" at Int'l Meeting

New York, Nov. 27 (Jiji Press)--An 83-year-old Japanese hibakusha atomic bomb survivor called for the abolition of nuclear weapons at an international conference Monday, describing them as "an absolute evil" that human beings cannot accept.

Sueichi Kido, secretary-general of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, or Nihon Hidankyo, spoke at the second meeting of parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 

The conference started on Monday at the U.N. headquarters in New York for a five-day run.

Kido said that the risk of nuclear war is growing amid Russia's military aggression against Ukraine and the fighting between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Once a nuclear war begins, it will only leave black, scorched cities, heaps of corpses and a world of death, Kido said, seeking the realization of peace through the abolishment of nuclear weapons.

Kido survived the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki toward the end of World War II in 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

At the outset of the conference, Izumi Nakamitsu, U.N. undersecretary-general and high representative for disarmament affairs, said that "the only way to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used is to ensure their total elimination."

The U.N. treaty is expected to play an important role as the international situation becomes tense, she said.

The treaty has been ratified by 69 of its 93 signatories. 

The signatories do not include nuclear powers or countries under nuclear umbrellas, such as Japan.

The Japanese government is not present at the conference even as an observer, just like in the first meeting last year.

Also on Monday, a group of Japanese local governments working for nuclear abolition, including the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, held a side event at the U.N. headquarters.

Toshiyuki Mimaki, 81, who heads the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, called for actions to eliminate nuclear weapons.

"We have a responsibility to leave behind a world where human beings in the generation of our grandchildren and later can live with peace of mind," Mimaki said at the event.

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