SANTA BARBARA/Tokyo (INPSJ), Jun 19 (IPS) – Marking 80 years because the daybreak of the nuclear age, peace advocates, diplomats, educators, and atomic bomb survivors from around the globe gathered for the “Select Hope” symposium on March 12–13, 2025, in Santa Barbara, California. Co-organized by the Nuclear Age Peace Basis (NAPF) and Soka Gakkai Worldwide (SGI), the occasion was held on the Music Academy of the West.
The symposium was impressed by the 2001 dialogue ebook Select Hope co-authored by NAPF founder David Krieger and SGI President Daisaku Ikeda, revisiting the moral and strategic urgency of nuclear abolition.
“This isn’t nearly legacy,” mentioned Dr. Ivana Nikoli? Hughes, president of NAPF. “We’re right here to proceed the journey they began and to construct a world free from the specter of nuclear weapons.”
Tomohiko Aishima, Director of Peace Affairs at SGI, recalled witnessing their dialogue firsthand: “What impressed me most was that their dialogue was not merely about beliefs—it was a name to motion, rooted in sensible options.”
A Warning In opposition to Nuclear Deterrence
Annie Jacobsen, Pulitzer Prize finalist and creator of Nuclear Struggle: A Situation delivers the twentieth Frank Okay. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future initially of the symposium. Credit score:Nuclear Age Peace Basis
Within the keynote lecture, Pulitzer Prize finalist and creator Annie Jacobsen posed the query, “What occurs if nuclear deterrence fails?” Drawing from confidential interviews with U.S. authorities and army insiders, Jacobsen warned: “Irrespective of the way it begins, nuclear battle will finish in whole annihilation.” She defined that after a nuclear alternate is triggered, retaliatory strikes may unfold globally inside simply seven minutes, resulting in uncontrollable destruction and the collapse of human civilization.
In a following panel, moderated by Dr. Hughes, Princeton College’s Professor Emeritus Richard Falk, Dr. Jimmy Hara of Physicians for Social Accountability–Los Angeles (PSR-LA), Professor Peter Kuznick of American College, and ICAN Government Director Melissa Parke addressed coverage transformations urgently wanted to stop such a disaster.
On the second day, SGI’s Director for Disarmament and Human Rights, Chie Sunada, moderated the session titled “From Deterrence to Disarmament: The Path Ahead.” She warned towards the growing function of nuclear weapons in nationwide safety doctrines and reported: “On the Third Assembly of States Events to the TPNW, it was reaffirmed that nuclear deterrence itself is a risk to human survival.”
Ambassador Elayne Whyte, who presided over the 2017 UN negotiations that adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), emphasised the necessity for honest dialogue, even with those that maintain opposing views.
Listening to Testimony
Atomic bomb survivor Masako Wada from Nagasaki (representing Nihon Hidankyo) addressed the symposium through video message, urging contributors to “proceed telling the reality concerning the horrors of the bomb.”
Mary Dickson, a thyroid most cancers survivor and U.S. “downwinder” affected by nuclear testing, declared: “We have been intentionally uncovered. Justice is required not just for us, however for victims within the Marshall Islands, Kazakhstan, Polynesia, and in every single place else.”
Within the session “Legacy of Nuclear Use and Testing: A Name for Justice,” SGI United Nations Workplace Disarmament Program Coordinator Anna Ikeda shared testimony on the well being results, stigma, and trauma skilled by victims. “Nuclear justice means establishing the collective understanding that the use, testing, or risk of nuclear weapons can by no means be justified,” she mentioned.
Dr. Togzhan Kassenova offered findings on the intergenerational well being results stemming from Soviet-era nuclear assessments in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. Christian Ciobanu, representing Kiribati and Youth for TPNW, proposed establishing a world fund for sufferer help and environmental remediation. Veronique Christory of the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross (ICRC) pressured the significance of humanitarian rules in disarmament efforts.
The Intersection with Local weather Justice
The ultimate panel, “The Intersection of Local weather and Nuclear Justice: Empowering Youth for Change,” was moderated by SGI Disarmament Program Coordinator Miyuki Horiguchi.
Anduin Devos of NuclearBan.US mirrored on how concern over the local weather disaster led her to turn into concerned within the anti-nuclear motion. “Sources spent on nuclear weapons ought to be redirected to handle local weather options,” she mentioned.
Younger activists Kevin Chiu and Viktoria Lokh spoke on the significance of integrating youth voices into nuclear coverage discussions. Horiguchi cited a Native American proverb—“We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our youngsters”—and a quote from Select Hope: “Hope is one other identify for youth,” emphasizing the distinctive energy of younger folks to open new eras.
Artwork as a Catalyst for Change
Movie director Andrew Davis and artist Stella Rose mentioned the function of artwork in inspiring consciousness and motion. “Artwork doesn’t simply replicate reality—it makes us really feel it, and transfer us to behave,” mentioned Davis.
The symposium’s closing declaration additionally underscored the function of tradition and creativity in selling peace and deepening empathy.
The Ultimate Declaration: Selecting Hope
The symposium concluded with the adoption of the Select Hope Declaration. With the Doomsday Clock set at “89 seconds to midnight,” the declaration warned {that a} nuclear-free world is feasible solely by intentional and collective selections. “We select hope over despair,” it said.
This text is delivered to you by INPS Japan in collaboration with Soka Gakkai Worldwide, in consultative standing with the UN’s Financial and Social Council (ECOSOC).
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