The Mubarak Center, three-story public library where the exhibition was held, is located along the west bank of the Nail River. During the period, about 500 people visited the library and saw the exhibition. A panorama view of the two devastated cities and other posters depicting the effects of heat rays, blast and radiation impressively showed what had happened to people under the mushroom cloud.

After Rupture of 2005 NPT Review Conference

The planning of the exhibition was started in the 2005 World Conference against A and H Bombs. In May of the same year, the NPT Review Conference with the implementation of an “unequivocal undertaking” for the abolition of nuclear weapons being urged was broken down by the arrogant attitude of the Bush administration. Drawing a lesson from the disappointing outcome, the world conference came to an agreement to arouse overwhelming public opinion in favor of the abolition of nuclear weapons, and to that end, it called for vigorously carrying out a new signature campaign, peace marches, holding the A-bomb exhibitions to disseminate the damage of atomic bombing in and out of Japan.

In order to implement the decision of the world conference, Gensuikyo decided to conduct the Hibakusha’s speaking tour and the A-bomb exhibition not only in nuclear weapons states but in Asian countries; further, it decided to try to get cooperation from governments of the New Agenda Coalition and the Non-aligned Movement in these activities. It was Egypt, member state of NAC and next chair nation of the NAM that was the first to kindly accept our request to host these activities.

Serious effort of Egypt government and people on this issue

Along with the exhibition, we had a seminar with the participation of students at Cairo university on Nov. 23, a panel discussion under the same theme of the exhibition on Nov. 24, a lecture meeting with about 30 newly-appointed diplomats as audience at the Diplomatic Institute and a dialogue with junior and senior high school students on Nov. 28. All the programs were attended by government officials of Egypt. They presided at and spoke to these programs. They include Prof. Mona El Baradei and Prof. Sanaa Ahmed Esmail at the seminar of the Cairo University, Amb. Abdel Raouf El Reedy, the director of the Mubarak Public Library, and Amb. Hisham Badr, former ambassador to Japan in the panel discussion, and Amb. Soad M. Shalaby, Amb. Amk Aboulatta and Amb. Mohamed Ezzeldine Abdel-Moneim in the lecture meeting.

Active dialogue and Q & A sessions

From the Japanese side, Mikiso Iwasa, assistant secretary general of Hidankyo and I, became speakers on behalf of the delegation. The two other Hibakushas of Junko Kayashige and Masae Kanatani also spoke about their experiences of atomic bombing at some programs.

Immediately after the atomic bombing and ever since, a myth has been propagated throughout the world that “The A-bombing brought an early end to the war” or “It saved several hundred thousand lives of the youths”. However, the tireless efforts of the Hibakusha to let the world know the reality of what happened under the mushroom cloud, and of the world peace movement in response to Hibakusha’s call, have finally achieved the “unequivocal undertaking to eliminate nuclear weapons” from the nuclear weapons states in the final year of the 20th century at the 2000 NPT Review Conference. Along with this achievement, we emphasized that dependence on nuclear weapons still continued, and for securing the survival of human race, all people and governments, beyond all boundaries, should work together to abolish nuclear weapons.

People at these meetings raised many diverse questions as “Why were Hiroshima and Nagasaki made targets for the A-bombing?”, “How were the Hibakusha able to survive until today?”, “Don’t you hold a grudge against the U.S., which dropped the A-bombs?” or “How can we force the nuclear powers to abandon their nuclear arsenals?”. People were engaged in such lively discussions and Q & A sessions that many of them lined up before the microphone to speak up.

Our delegation also learned many things

The first meeting of the World Conference against A & H Bombs and the government of Egypt was when the late Amb. Mahmoud Mubarak, then Assistant Foreign Minister of Egypt took part in the 2002 World Conference. He was playing an important role as the representative of Egypt in the New Agenda Coalition. It was around the time when the Bush Administration had been aiming its sights on Iraq and sent State Secretary Powell to Arab countries, by which tension was rapidly running high. Through his presentations in the world conference, Amb. Mubarak showed a very firm and clear stance on the abolition of nuclear weapons and the solution of Iraqi problems through peaceful means. The leadership played by Egypt led to the unanimous demand from the Arab world for a peaceful solution, which moved the anti-war opinion of the world. Amb. Mubarak contributed greatly to developing friendly relations between the world conference and the government of Egypt, which has been playing a pivotal role in bringing together the NAC, the NAM and the League of Arab States.

Our delegation wanted to know how much the people of Egypt were conscious about nuclear-free and peace issues. As is well known, Egypt engaged in warfare with Israel 4 times after the Second World War. And through the 1970s, it shifted its stance to solving through diplomatic means the problems of Palestine and occupied territories by Israel. That policy shift generated various controversies, but Egypt has proven that its effort for peaceful solutions does not mean the accommodation to injustice or sacrificing other peoples. In the face of Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons and continued refusal to join the NPT, in early 1990s, Egypt proposed that the Middle East region should be made a zone free of all weapons of mass destruction, and has promoted a non-nuclear and peace diplomacy. How do the people of Egypt see their government seeking the initiative for peace and a nuclear weapon-free world in the region facing unparalleled and complicated problems in Palestine, Iraq and Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons? Naturally, the number of people whom we were able to meet during our short stay was limited. However, when it comes to the question of nuclear weapons and peace, people in Egypt were all very sincere and serious in discussing and tackling the problem.