Japanese Communist Praises Obama's Anti Nuke Speech

Guess who's happy with US president Obama's anti-nuclear proposals?

From the Communist Party USA's People's Weekly World

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on April 28 met Jim Zumwalt, charge d'affaires ad interim in U.S. Embassy Tokyo and handed him a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama calling on him to take the initiative in starting international negotiations aimed at abolishing nuclear weapons.

April 28, 2009
The President of the United States of America

The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Obama,

I am writing this letter to you, on behalf of a political party that has worked resolutely for the elimination of nuclear weapons from the face of the earth, hand in hand with the people of Japan, the only A-bombed nation, which suffered untold disasters.


JCP Chairman Kazuo Shii speaks to a Reuters reporter during an interview at the party's headquarters in Tokyo February 13, 2009.

I was deeply impressed to read your speech delivered on April 5 in Prague in which you said, "I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons." For the first time, the United States, the biggest nuclear-weapon state in the world, put forward its national goal of "a world without nuclear weapons," namely the elimination of nuclear weapons.

You also said in the speech, "as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act." You made clear to the world for the first time as U.S. president that the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an event that has a bearing upon human morals and talked about the U.S. having a responsibility to work for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

You added in the speech, "To denounce or shrug off a call for cooperation is an easy but also a cowardly thing to do. That's how wars begin. That's where human progress ends." By so saying, you called on all nations to cooperate for establishing "a world without nuclear weapons," and stressed that "voices for peace and progress must be raised together."

That you made such official declarations as a U.S. president is of historic significance for both humanity as a whole, and the people of the world's only A-bombed country in particular, which I heartily welcome...

The only guarantee against nuclear weapons being used is to create "a world without nuclear weapons." You raised this major goal to the world. Let me repeat once again that I welcome your statement, and hope that the spirit of your statement will be given full play in world politics. I would like to conclude my letter with a wish for the friendship between the United States and Japan to develop.

Sincerely yours,

Kazuo Shii

Chairperson of the Executive Committee

Japanese Communist Party

Member of the House of Representatives, National Diet