<Articles>From Experience to Anti-Nuclear Convictions: Early Years, Crises, and Evolution of the Nihon Hidankyō

Abstract

The anti-atomic and hydrogen bomb movement is a representative peace movement in postwar Japan, underpinned by widespread empathy for the experiences of atomic bombing survivors, the hibakusha. However, the experience of being subjected to atomic bombings does not automatically link one to the ideology or movement to ban nuclear bombs. This study aims to examine the period from the establishment of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyō), representing the atomic bombing survivors' movements in Japan, which emerged from the anti-atomic and hydrogen bomb movement (gensuikin movement). By depicting Hidankyō's movement in relation to the gensuikin movement, this study aims to elucidate the principles of the atomic and hydrogen bomb prohibition held during the early Hidankyō movement. It explores the circumstances leading to the organization's unique activism in the 1970s, amid organizational crises, including conservative elements drifting away from the anti-nuclear movement around the late 1950s during negotiations on the revision of the Japan-US Security Treaty, and the split of the Japan Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Gensuikyō) in 1963 due to socialist–communist disputes. The findings emphasize a reconsideration of the relationship between atomic bombing experiences, often viewed as the foundation of post-war Japanese pacifism, and the ideals of prohibiting nuclear bombs.