Japan atomic bomb survivors group criticizes Takaichi's push to revise three non-nuclear principles

Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese atomic bomb survivors' organization that received the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, has directly criticized Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae's moves to revise Japan's three non-nuclear principles.

In a statement released Monday to mark the group's 70th anniversary, Nihon Hidankyo said "the current Japanese government is trying to change the three non-nuclear principles and the constitution without sufficient discussion," according to Kyodo News and other media outlets.

The group went on to say that "it is the responsibility of a nation that has suffered atomic bombings — and the first step toward a peaceful world — for the state to recognize compensation for war damages and for Japan to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons."

Nihon Hidankyo chairman Tanaka Shigemitsu said Japan "is gradually making a mess of its peace constitution" and that "the public needs to be more sensitive." He added: "Nuclear weapons were dropped because there was war. War must never happen."

The statement came after Takaichi altered the wording on the three non-nuclear principles at atomic bomb memorial ceremonies.

At the Hiroshima memorial on Thursday and the Nagasaki memorial on Sunday, Takaichi used the phrase "we are upholding" the principles — dropping the forward-looking nuance of "while upholding" that previous prime ministers had used.

According to the Associated Press, Nagasaki Mayor Suzuki Shiro's peace declaration on Sunday described nuclear weapons as "absolute evil" and called on the government to uphold the three non-nuclear principles. Takaichi, however, made no mention of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the ceremony.

The three non-nuclear principles hold that Japan will not possess, produce or permit the introduction of nuclear weapons onto its territory. Then-Prime Minister Sato Eisaku first articulated them in 1967, and the National Assembly adopted them by resolution in 1971, since which they have been regarded in effect as a national policy.

The number of government-recognized atomic bomb survivors stood at about 91,000 as of March this year, down from about 164,000 a decade ago. Their average age is 86.7.

Nihon Hidankyo was founded in 1956 by survivors of the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The group received the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.