Kerry, Obama and Hiroshima – Please take action!

The Cenotaph at ground zero in Hiroshima, where the U.S. dropped the first nuclear bomb 71 years ago

Recently we sent you a request to contact President Barack Obama on further initiatives to reduce the danger of nuclear weapons, as he advocated in his Prague speech in 2009, and again less than two weeks ago in a Washington Post op-ed.

Today, we have an even more compelling opportunity in the wake of Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Hiroshima’s Peace Park and news reports the president is also considering paying his respects there next month during the G-7 economic summit in Japan.

Peace Action, and our Japanese colleagues, want the president to go to Hiroshima, but not just symbolically. Please contact the president and urge him to visit with Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) to learn from their powerful witness, and to take further steps toward nuclear disarmament, including:

-further nuclear reductions in the U.S. arsenal, in concert with Russia;
-initiating negotiations for the verifiable global elimination of all nuclear weapons, as the U.S. and other nuclear states are required to do by Article VI of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty;
-canceling the 30 year, $1 trillion planned boondoggle to completely overhaul the U.S. nuclear weapons complex.

We have some time to build this short-term campaign, and are reaching out to colleagues in the U.S. and internationally. Let’s get it off to a good start with a strong Peace Action response! Please contact the president today, and encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Peacefully yours,

Kevin Martin
Executive Director
Peace Action

P.S. This may be President Obama’s last real chance for further progress on nuclear weapons reductions before he leaves office. Please contact him today, he needs to hear from us!