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2024 Relaunch of the Peace Boat Hibakusha Project: Beyond Borders and Generations
As an international NGO based in Japan, a country which has experienced the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, appealing about the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons and contributing to their prohibition and elimination is a core mission of Peace Boat. Toward this, we have been carrying out the "Global Voyage for a Nuclear-Free World: Peace Boat Hibakusha Project" since the year 2008. As part of this project, more than 170 Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, along with nuclear survivors from around the world, to give their testimony and deliver their message for nuclear weapons abolition to the world. The project has also incorporated perspectives of youth under 30 and second generation survivors, exploring diverse methods for passing on the experience of the Hibakusha to future generations.
In addition to testimony sessions at the ports of call visited during our voyages, through this project we have also worked to convey the horror of nuclear weapons through first-hand experience shared in seminars about the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), conferences at sea, and forums with Global Hibakusha. This has contributed to international understanding, growing public opinion and momentum for action regarding the inhumanity of nuclear weapons.
The TPNW, which was adopted by the United Nations in 2017 and entered into force on January 22, 2021, is the world's response to the longstanding appeals of Hibakusha and people impacted by nuclear testing around the world.
From 2020, due to global Covid-19 pandemic, there were fewer opportunities for direct interaction, and Peace Boat's voyages were temporarily put on a hold. During this period, we held a great number of online testimony sessions as "Every Second Counts for the Survivors! - Peace Boat Hibakusha Project Online."
Today the global momentum to truly eliminate nuclear weapons through the TPNW continues to grow. Yet at the same time, it is also true that with Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, the threat of nuclear weapons has also increased. This is why Peace Boat is now relaunching the Hibakusha Project through our voyages, to directly and widely convey the inhumanity of nuclear weapons in person outside Japan and to raise public opinion for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Relaunch on Spring 2024 Global Voyage
Peace Boat will once again welcome a group of Hibakusha, nuclear survivors, and youth from different parts of the world from both nuclear weapon and non-nuclear weapon states to join our 117th Global Voyage, departing in April 2024, for the first edition of the "Peace Boat Hibakusha Project: Beyond Borders and Generations." In cooperation with ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) partner organizations around the world, we aim to pass on and connect to action across both national and generational borders.
A public call will be made for applications from youth around the world to join this voyage. The call will be opened in November 2023, and selected applicants will be notified in early 2024. Details on this process will be announced at a later date.
New Project Director
In order to implement this new iteration of the Peace Boat Hibakusha Project, Watanabe Rika has been appointed as Director, taking over from Kawasaki Akira who has directed the project since its establishment in 2008. Having worked closely with Hibakusha and young people from around the world, Rika will lead the project in close cooperation with Kawasaki and other team members and partners from Japan and beyond.
