In their letter to the President, authors noted that 67 years ago, a nuclear bomb destroyed their city and instantly killed tens of thousands of innocent people.
“As youth of Hiroshima, we are deeply concerned that our future is still being threatened by close to 20,000 nuclear weapons. We are writing to you and other leaders to ask for help in eliminating this threat. We enclose a gift of 1,000 hand-folded paper cranes – each one a prayer for a peaceful, nuclear- weapon-free world,” says the letter.
The authors told about plans to publish the address of the Head of State as part of their campaign to inspire people around the world to work towards a global ban on nuclear testing.
“We fear that unless governments and individuals do more to rid the world of these horrible weapons, another city might one day suffer the same fate as our own. As youth peace ambassadors, we feel that we must do everything in our power to keep that from happening – which is why we are seeking your support,” the letter noted.
In his own letter in response, the President of Kazakhstan underlined that August 6, 1945 forever went down in history as the day of the tragedy of the Japanese people which suffered from the nuclear bombings.
“The people of Kazakhstan, as well as the people of Japan which are close to us, have experienced the horrors of nuclear weapons and as no one else know about the terrible consequences of nuclear testing. Twenty-onw years have passed since I signed the decree to shut down the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. This historic act committed according to the will of people of our country, has a huge civilizational value. Kazakhstan has bridged its nuclear fears and also relieved from these fears those to whom they have been indoctrinated with our nuclear arsenal,” the letter said.
The Head of State noted that today there is another opportunity to remind the world of the tragic consequences of nuclear testing and to encourage the global community to act more decisively on its definite and irreversible ban.
“In this regard, on August 29, 2012, at the International Conference “From a Nuclear Test Ban to a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World” in Astana, I announced the launch by Kazakhstan of an international campaign, The ATOM Project. The name of the project was composed from the first letters of the words in English - Abolish Testing. Our Mission. As part of the Project any human on the Earth who opposes nuclear weapons, can sign an online petition at www.theatomproiect.org and urge the governments of the world to permanently abandon nuclear testing and to achieve the early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty,” the President emphasized.
In his letter, the President of Kazakhstan called on the Hiroshima Youth Committee and all the people of good will to support the ATOM Project and to make the establishment of a world without nuclear weapons our most important objective.
“Only then we can ensure our children and grandchildren a peaceful and secure future,” Nursultan Nazarbayev’s letter said.