Letter to the United Nations Security Council: No Nuclear Weapons on Okinawa!

Extract

For six decades Okinawa has been a militarized island, first as Japan prepared to resist the U.S. in the final days of World War II, since 1945 as a military colony of the United States, and since 1972 as the fortress of American military might in an island that reverted to Japanese rule without reducing the base structure. It also boasts Japan's most vigorous and creative peace movements. No Nuclear Weapons on Okinawa! Organizing Committee (NONO!) has just written to the UN Security Council petitioning that the Council, in the spirit of eliminating Weapons of Mass Destruction that it is presently pursuing, send an inspection team to Okinawa to search out and destroy any nuclear weapons that may be found. These weapons not only constitute a violation of U.S.-Japan treaties, they also pose a life and death threat both to the people of Iraq and other targets of U.S. attack, and Okinawa. Their initiative is one that could inspire peace movements throughout the world, beginning in the United States.