Dispatches from Nagasaki No.9
Nagasaki confirmed as site for the 2015 Pugwash International Conference
(July 31, 2014)In 2015, the year commemorating the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing, Nagasaki City will hold the 61st Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs, an international convention for scientists aiming to abolish war and nuclear weapons. The conference will run for the five-day period from November 1-5. The announcement was made in Tokyo on July 8 by a delegation from the organizing body, the Pugwash 2015 Executive Committee. In keeping with the anti-nuclear and pro-peace pleas of the atomic-bombed city, discussions will be held on the denuclearization of North East Asia and the social responsibility of scientists in the wake of the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The results of the conference will then be compiled for the planned release of a “Nagasaki Declaration”. The announcement was made by a six-member delegation that included Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, former president of the Science Council of Japan and chairman of the Advisory Council of Pugwash Japan, and Prof. Toshihide Masukawa, Council member and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
The principal site for the conference will be Iojima Island in Nagasaki City. Some two hundred people representing approximately forty countries are expected to be in attendance. As a general rule, panel sessions and working group debates on individual themes will not be open to the public. Plans also call for the staging of lectures, public symposiums and dialogues with citizens and atomic bombing survivors, the details of which are subject to further deliberations. Fund-raising activities aimed at corporations, associations and individuals will be initiated in order to help finance the conference.
A corresponding event for students and junior researchers named “The Student and Young Pugwash Conference” will also be staged next year over the two-day period from October 30-31.
As reported in Nagasaki Shimbun, Pugwash Japan Advisory Council member and winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics Toshihide Masukawa of Nagoya University spoke at the press conference of his concern that, “technical upgrades are being made to all military equipment, not only nuclear weapons, and even more countries are becoming involved. The situation is more serious than before.” Council chairman Hiroyuki Yoshikawa of the Japan Science and Technology Agency added that “scientific development poses various threats to society and the responsibility of scientists is being called to account. The accident at Fukushima is a perfect example.”
In the prospectus issued by Pugwash 2015, the main theme of the conference is as “Seventy years after the atomic bombings: Realizing a world free of nuclear weapons” and PCU-Nagasaki Council and Nagasaki University are listed as supporting organizations.
(Quotes from Nagasaki Shimbun were taken from the July 9, 2014 edition)
長崎にてパグウォッシュ会議世界大会を２０１５年に開催決定
(2014年7月31日)２０１５年１１月１日～５日の５日間、長崎市で被爆７０年に合わせて核兵器、戦争の廃絶を目指す科学者の国際会議「第６１回パグウォッシュ会議世界大会」が開催されることとなった。１１月８日、主催者団体である「パグウォッシュ２０１５組織員会」が東京で発表した。被爆地で反核平和の願いを共有しながら、北東アジア非核化の実現や福島第１原発事故を契機とした「科学者の社会的責任」に関する議論などを展開。成果を「長崎宣言」にまとめる計画である。発表には、元日本学術会議会長で「日本パグウォッシュ会議諮問評議会議長」を務める吉川弘之氏、ノーベル物理学賞受賞者でやはり委員を務める益川敏英教授など６名が参加した。
大会は長崎市の「やすらぎ伊王島」を主会場に、約４０カ国約２００人が参加する見通し。期間中はパネルセッション、個別テーマに関するワーキンググループでの討論などを原則非公開で行う。ほかに講演や公開シンポジウム、被爆者・市民との対話などを予定。詳細は今後検討する。開催費用に充てるため今後、企業や団体、個人を対象に募金活動を展開する。
大会に合わせて来年１０月３０、３１日の２日間、若手研究者や学生による「国際学生・ヤングパグウォッシュ会議」も開かれる。
長崎新聞の報道によると、日本パグウォッシュ会議諮問評議会委員で、２００８年にノーベル物理学賞を受賞した益川敏英氏（名古屋大）は会見で「核兵器に限らず、戦争の道具は技術的に高度化し周辺国にも広がっている。過去より一層深刻な状況」と懸念を語った。同評議会議長の吉川弘之氏（科学技術振興機構）は「科学的発展の中でさまざまな問題が社会に脅威をもたらしており、科学者の責任が問われている。典型的な例が福島の事故だ」と強調した。
パグウォッシュ２０１５が公表した趣意書によると、メインテーマは「被爆７０年、核なき世界の実現を」（仮）とされており、協力団体として、核兵器廃絶長崎連絡協議会、国立大学法人長崎大学等が挙げられている。
（長崎新聞 ２０１４年７月９日掲載記事引用）
