A group of Japanese high school students called for the abolition of nuclear weapons on Tuesday as they visited the U.N. office in Geneva as peace messengers for the first time in four years after the COVID-19 pandemic halted any trips.
The 22 female students from 16 prefectures, aged 15 to 18, submitted some 625,000 signatures that they had collected since 2020 to push for the abolition of nuclear weapons and attended the U.N. conference on disarmament, dedicated to a discussion on the elimination of nuclear weapons.
The members are selected each year to convey the messages of the two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were devastated by U.S. atomic bombs in the final days of World War II.
"The peace maintained by the presence of nuclear weapons is not sustainable," said Koharu Osawa, a 16-year-old student from Nagasaki during a meeting with Carolyne-Melanie Regimbal, chief of service of the U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs' Geneva Office.
Noting that "Nuclear weapons continue to be tremendous risks to our society," Regimbal said that "Japan has a long-standing commitment to peace, disarmament but also youth leadership," adding, "The U.N. remains determined to find solutions" with the peace messenger initiative.
Referring to the willingness of North Korea and Russia to develop their nuclear weapons capacities, the students urged states to act as soon as possible to prevent another human disaster.
"A peaceful world can only be achieved by someone willing to change the world, that's why we are here," said Momo Nagato, 16, from Hiroshima.
"I would like you to come to Hiroshima and Nagasaki and listen to the voices of the hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors)," she said during the meeting.
"We will strive to prevent people from becoming victims of another war and to achieve nuclear disarmament by showing the world how priceless peace is," added Ayaha Kurita, 15, from Tokyo.
The Peace Messenger initiative dates back to 1998, when India and Pakistan conducted nuclear tests, and since then more than 2,620,000 signatures have been collected and delivered to the United Nations.
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