CISD: Setsuko Thurlow: Interview with a Hiroshima survivor

Published: June 19, 2016, 11:09 a.m.

b'As a 13-year old schoolgirl, Setsuko Thurlow found herself in close proximity to the hypocenter of the atomic blast that hit Hiroshima on the 6th August 1945. A survivor of one of the most pivotal events in modern history, she has dedicated much of her life to breaking the silence surrounding nuclear issues and has recounted her experiences thousands of times across the globe.\\nNow aged 83 Setsko, who resides in Canada with her husband, remains a prominent anti-nuclear activist and last year received the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation\\u2019s Distinguished Peace Leadership Award for her work.\\nHere she speaks on her life after Hiroshima, her experiences moving to the US, and her views on the legacy of the 1945 tragedy both for modern Japan and the future of world politics.\\n\\nFurther information on the Anti-Nuclear Movement:\\nOver the last 9 years \\u2013 worn out by the political and diplomatic deadlock over nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation negotiations, and off the back of an announcement by the International Committee of the Red Cross that said that they would be unable to provide any form of humanitarian relief to survivors of a nuclear attack \\u2013 a group of activists, diplomats, governments and politicians started to campaign to reframe nuclear weapons not as a security issue but as a humanitarian issue. \\n\\nThe resulting organisation became known as the International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, and in December 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted its first ever Humanitarian Pledge for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. For more information about ICAN\\u2019s ongoing work and the Humanitarian Pledge, go to www.icanw.org'