About RECNA
Background and Objectives
Nagasaki University is the only university in the world that has inherited a medical college having experienced the atomic bombing. Achieving a “world free from nuclear weapons” is thus a paramount concern to the University. Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition, Nagasaki University (RECNA), located in a city that was attacked by an atomic bomb, is an educational and research institute which is the interdisciplinary center of local academia with a firsthand experience of the horror of nuclear weapons. The objectives of RECNA are as follows:
1) Through academic research and analysis, to redefine the significance of Hiroshima and Nagasaki experiences in the light of the current world trend, and disseminate information and make proposals from various aspects towards abolishing nuclear weapons;
2) Making best use of such a process and outcomes of its research and analysis, to contribute to university education.
RECNA, as a think tank open to the local community longing for nuclear weapons abolition, operates in close cooperation with partners including Nagasaki City and Nagasaki Prefecture.
[RECNA Staff] [Leaflet] [Access]
OUR MISSION
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| Director of RECNA Fumihiko Yoshida |
The Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition, Nagasaki University (RECNA), was established in April 2012, and I am the third director since RECNA’s launch. Over the period since 2012, against the background of a strong will to “Let Nagasaki be the last,” and encouraged and empowered by this ideal, RECNA has grown to become a center of research and education focusing on the abolition of nuclear weapons that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. We will continue to involve ourselves in the following three points with a true sense of mission.
First, we will continue to be a research and education center that can make a difference in our fluctuating world order. We hope to make RECNA an organization distinguished both in Japan and overseas, the sort of organization about which people will judge the veracity of things by saying “because RECNA is the source” or “because the RECN researchers say so.” In order to achieve this goal, we will exert great effort in investigations, research and policy recommendations that contribute to the “Nagasaki Process” – which aims to denuclearize Northeast Asia – and the creation of a security framework that does not rely on nuclear deterrence.
Second, we will make exhaustive efforts to foster human resources at the atomic bombing site. Nagasaki University’s Graduate School of Global Humanities and Social Sciences will continue to foster human resources with sophisticated specialist ability, and the School of Global Humanities and Social Sciences as well as the Nagasaki Youth Delegation will continue to foster young people who place an emphasis on having a wide perspective and being independent. Whether it is the publication of the content of research or the turning out of human resources, RECNA’s starting point is one and the same. We will place an emphasis on problem-solving skills that transcend the walls between humanities and natural science and between the academic and the practical.
Third, we have a vital mission as a “think tank for citizens” situated on an atomic bombing site. It is unlikely that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons would ever have come into existence without the global civil society activities in which the hibakusha took the lead. RECNA will, as a Nagasaki-based research institute, sort the information and materials useful to nuclear weapons abolition, and strive to enable the free access of interested citizens to these resources. What should be done in order to ensure the voices of the NGOs from the atomic bombing sites reverberate around the world more clearly? Thinking long and hard, while placing a great value upon for dialog and the exchange of opinions. These are the missions of RECNA. I hope that we can place our trust in you for your ongoing kind support.
(April 1, 2019)
