A Japanese atomic bomb survivors group that won the Nobel Peace Prize has strongly criticised US President Donald Trump’s surprise directive to begin nuclear weapons testing, calling it “utterly unacceptable”.
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More than 200,000 people were killed when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, the only time nuclear weapons have been used during warfare.
Survivors, known as hibakusha, have battled decades of physical and psychological trauma as well as the stigma that often came with being a victim.
After Trump said on Thursday that he had ordered the Pentagon to start nuclear weapons testing to equal China and Russia, Nobel laureate Nihon Hidankyo sent a letter of protest to the US embassy in Japan.
The directive “directly contradicts the efforts by nations around the world striving for a peaceful world without nuclear weapons and is utterly unacceptable”, the survivors group said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Agence France-Presse on Friday.
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The mayor of Nagasaki also condemned Trump’s order, saying it “trampled on the efforts of people around the world who have been sweating blood and tears to realise a world without nuclear weapons”.
“If nuclear weapons testing were to start immediately, wouldn’t that make him unworthy of the Nobel Peace Prize?” Mayor Shiro Suzuki told reporters on Thursday, referring to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s intention to nominate Trump for the award.