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Anti A & H Bomb Conference Builds International Friendship

By VVAW

A VVAW/WSO representative, Bill Davis from the National Office, recently attended the 21st World Conference Against A&H Bombs in Japan. The Conference was sponsored by Gensuikyo, a Japanese Coalition of peace groups, on this, the 30th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

The Conference Against A&H Bombs took place over a ten-day period, August 1-10, with rallies, meetings, speeches, and demonstrations at US military installations. Tours of the sites of the atomic bombings and hospitals of A-bomb victims forcefully brought home the barbaric realities of nuclear war. At the Conference the major topic of discussion was the prevention of future nuclear holocausts like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the danger of the US provoking a world war. This is an issue that the masses of Japanese people have taken up, struggling for a total ban on nuclear weapons. Recently the US government has threatened war in Korea and the Middle East, a war that could bring about World War III. As part of this threat, the Ford administration has insinuated that tactical nuclear weapons would be used in this aggression.

The Japanese people are also calling for the abolition of the sham treaty between Japan and the US that prohibits the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japan and Okinawa, and provides for a Japanese "self-defense force" for defense of Japan. The US military has systematically violated the treaty by bring nuclear weapons and materials into Japan and is presently building the Japanese Self-Defense Force into a major offensive military force that will serve US interests in Asia.

Organizations and governments of 23 countries were represented at the Conference with delegates from 15 international organizations. Some of the countries represented were the DRV, the PRG, Laos, Micronesia, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Democratic Peoples Republic of South Yemen, Nambia, Democratic Chile (in exile), Cuba, and many others.

VVAW/WSO's role at the conference as part of the US delegation was to promote international solidarity with the demands of the Japanese peoples' struggle to abolish nuclear weapons, bring about a total withdrawal of US military forces from Japan, Okinawa, and Korea, and prevent another US war of aggression in Asia. Another important aspect of VVAW/WSO's work at the Conference was to establish international ties of friendship and solidarity with representatives of various organizations and countries present on behalf of the growing veterans movement in the US.

Key events of the trip were the demonstrations and rallies at several US military installations where Bill Davis, representing VVAW/WSO, addressed GIs and their families calling for friendship and solidarity between American GIs and the Japanese people, and the withdrawal of US forces from Japan. In one instance, at the Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station, GIs were physically harassed and arrested for demonstrating and showing support in a spontaneous demonstration inside the base. Several discussions and meetings were held with GIs and GI organizers there.

A highpoint of the Conference came as Mr. Dang Quang Minh, member of the Central Committee of the National Front for Liberation of South Vietnam and Bill Davis of VVAW/WSO spoke together on stage at the Tokyo rally before an estimated audience of 10,000 Japanese delegates to the Gensuikyo Conference in an intense show of US-Vietnamese solidarity that brought several minutes of thunderous applause.

Prior to the opening of the Tokyo Conference, Gensuikyo arranged a meeting between the Vietnamese delegation, comprised of five representatives from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and four from the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (PRG), and the American delegation of 26 people representing a variety of classes in the US.

The meeting between the two delegations was a highly historic occasion since this was the first official meeting between the American and Vietnamese people since the end of the war. After a full day of messages of friendship and solidarity, gifts, and cultural exchanges, the people in attendance issued the Tokyo Declaration of Peace and Friendship of July 30, 1975. The declaration, a people-to-people statement, emphasized the continued friendship between the Vietnamese and American people, expressed elation at the ending of the Vietnamese War, and fortified the struggle for reconstruction of Vietnam.

The Conference successfully united many people from around the world in opposition to the US aggressive foreign policy and the threat of a US provoked world war. The most important lesson shared was that a people united, as in Vietnam, can and will defeat an enemy regardless of its technology or weaponry. In any struggle it is the majority of people who make history, not nuclear weapons.